The Two Princes of Tennis
by Silenced by Chronos
Summary: Gakuen Alice & Prince of Tennis crossover. "I saw you guys play tennis earlier. It was amazing!" "And I saw your strawberry print panties," NatsumeMikanRyoma
1. Seigaku Tennis Team

**Disclaimer: I do not own either Gakuen Alice or Prince of Tennis. *sigh***

* * *

.

**Chapter One: Seigaku Tennis Team**

.

"Wow," the fifteen year old Sakura Mikan breathed out, amazed at Seishuun Gakuen's tennis players. She was fascinated with the rigorous training that they were doing, especially the training of the ones who stood out the most: the ten players who wore the red, blue, and white jerseys. They were on separate courts from everyone else and were playing against each other. "Uwah!" she wailed in excitement and pointed to one of the players. "That serve that he did just now, what is it?" she asked, still pointing to the boy with the white cap, his dark green hair barely visible from where Mikan was standing.

"Oh, that's called a twist serve," Ryuzaki Sakuno said and smiled. "And that guy right there is Echizen Ryoma. He's the youngest regular on the team," she explained, a faint blush forming on her cheeks.

"Echizen Ryoma," Mikan repeated and placed her hand on her chin, wondering where she had heard that name before. "His name sounds kind of familiar," said the brunette, still trying to remember where she heard it from.

"I might have mentioned him to you once or twice," Sakuno said softly, her eyes watching the tennis matches carefully.

"Oh, yeah!" Mikan burst out. "I remember now. Echizen Ryoma is the guy that you keep mentioning to me, right? Yeah, I remember that you told me how much of a great tennis player he was and how he was the first freshman to become a regular when he was in middle school, but I guess I didn't really pay much attention to that before. Sorry about that," Mikan apologized, feeling somewhat guilty.

"That's alright. Anyway, are you watching the games? We're not that close but we can see all the matches from here."

"Yeah, I'm watching. It's really great. It's kind of hard to believe that they're only in high school," Mikan replied.

She transferred to the academy about two months ago already, but this was the first time that she saw the school's well-known tennis team. That is, the tennis team that was well-known to everyone but Mikan. She didn't really pay attention to these kinds of things and was more of the kind of person who merrily went on her own way.

"Who's that guy that Echizen Ryoma is against?" Mikan asked.

"Oh, him. He's Hyuuga Natsume. He's the second youngest regular on the team. He's technically the same age as Ryoma-kun and they're also in the same grade but Natsume-kun was born about a month earlier."

"He looks like he's a really hard worker."

"Yeah. Both him and Ryoma are known as the two 'Princes of Tennis' here at Seigaku," Sakuno explained.

All the matches stopped and the tennis players began to leave the courts. Mikan raised an eyebrow, wondering why they were leaving all of a sudden.

"Ah!" Sakuno exclaimed, remembering something important. "Shoot," she said, disappointed. "I forgot that I made Ryoma-kun a bentou." She sighed. "I guess I'll just give this to someone else and make another one for him tomorrow."

"What? Are you crazy? We can still make it. They're going to eat lunch, right? Then we just have to hurry and make a run for it. Do you think they'll be eating inside in the cafeteria or in the food court outside?" Mikan smiled widely at her closest friend in Seigaku. She wanted her to feel better. Besides, she knew how hard it was to make a bentou for yourself, let alone make one for yourself _and _for someone else. She especially hated the fact that you had to wake up early just to make yourself some decent lunch.

"The outside food court, probably? It's closer to the courts, and I think that the tennis players don't really want to walk all the way to the cafeteria just to eat lunch. Tennis is tiresome, you know," she pointed out proudly. Sakuno was a member of the girls tennis team. She wasn't exactly the best player there, but she improved by a lot since she started back in middle school.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go!" Mikan helped herself up and pulled Sakuno by her wrist, practically dragging her to the food court.

When they got there, it was shown that Sakuno's hunch of them eating outside was right. All of the tennis regulars were sitting down at one table, and most of them were already gulping down tons of food. People like Momoshiro Takeshi and Kikumaru Eiji weren't ashamed to attack the food and look like pigs in front of everyone. What can they do? They were hungry and tired, and needed more energy to play tennis again later on.

"Come on," Mikan whispered to Sakuno, motioning her to follow. Mikan walked to the table were the regulars were sitting and smiled. Her pigtails bounced with each step she took towards them.

"Hi," she said, standing near Natsume and Ryoma. The other tennis regulars looked at the girl who had spoken and then to the two princes and back. The raven-haired Natsume looked up at her with boredom while Ryoma merely cocked his head to the side and said, "Yes?"

A mild breeze blew, causing Mikan's hair to dance around a bit.

"My name is Sakura Mikan! Echizen-san, Sakuno-chan made a bentou for you." She handed him the homemade lunch. Sakuno peeked at him from behind Mikan.

"Hi, Ryoma-kun. I hope you like it," the braided-haired brunette said.

"Ah. Thanks," he said in an utmost uninterested voice.

"I saw you guys play tennis earlier. It was amazing!" Mikan said in her usual energetic and cheery voice. "It's really great how you two are the youngest regulars on the team and are considered as the two princes of tennis."

"And I saw your strawberry print panties," Natsume said monotonously, his ruby eyes still staring up at her with boredom.

_When did he..?_ Mikan thought. Seconds passed by as she thought of how he could have possibly seen her underwear. It took quite a while, but finally it hit her. Not too long ago, the wind blew and it must have shown her panties! But it was only a mild breeze so that meant that her skirt was only blown a little bit and... Natsume peeked at her underwear?

"Pervert!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. A cross look spread across her face.

"You sure are slow," he said and yawned, adding fuel to the fire.

The girl marched toward one of the eating tennis players at the same table and grabbed someone's drink in its large cup. She walked back to Natsume, ignoring the "Hey!" that someone said, likely the person whom she took the drink from.

She stood in front of him and slowly poured the drink on his head, which, by the way, happened to be a strawberry smoothie.

"Hmph," she grunted and began to walk away.

_What the hell? _Natsume's blood began to boil. All he did was say that she wore strawberry-print panties and got a pink, sticky, gooey strawberry smoothie poured on his head? He didn't deserve that—at least, he thought so anyway. Of course, he wasn't going to let her get away with doing that._ How dare she, _he thought and stood up from his chair. He took his racket out of its case along with a tennis ball, too. He took a serving stance and hit the ball. It headed toward Mikan's direction.

"Itai**!" she wailed. She placed her hand on the spot where she had been hit. She spun around quickly. Her hazel brown eyes met his ruby ones. "You," she said angrily.

"What?" he asked rhetorically. He placed his racket back into its case and kicked his chair down. He turned his head at Mikan. "Don't you dare mess with me, little girl," he said coldly and walked away.

Ryoma, who was watching the whole scene up close, began to laugh. "Strawberry-printed panties? In high school?" He shook his head and tried to hide his laughter, but it was no use. He began to laugh loudly again. _This girl must be an idiot for trying to mess with someone like Natsume._

Thoroughly humiliated and upset, Mikan looked at him sternly and walked up to him as well, giving him a good slap on the face. "It looks like the only thing that you two princes are good at is playing tennis! You don't have manners or a single friendly bone in your body!" she yelled. Tears began to form in her eyes. "Horrible," she muttered and ran away.

* * *

* bento - lunch (box)  
** itai - ouch

* * *

**Author's Note: Another story. It was short, but let me know what you thought of this. Should I continue or not?**

**Review please.**

**Ja,**

**Aimee.**


	2. My Savior

**Disclaimer: I do not own either Gakuen Alice or Prince of Tennis. I just love the bishounen there**

**

* * *

**

x

**Chapter Two: My Savior**

x**  
**

Sakuno sent Ryoma a disappointed look and went after Mikan.

The red-headed Kikumaru Eiji whistled, the sound becoming softer as time passed by. "OChibi, that was . . . unexpected." Kikumaru had broken the silence, and the rest of the regulars became rowdy and began to pester the youngest regular.

"Yes, indeed. That was out of my calculations," Inui agreed and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "That was normal for Hyuuga, but for you, Echizen, it wasn't so much…"

Momoshiro had gotten up from his seat and appeared behind Ryoma; he took Ryoma's cap and ruffled his hair. "Natsume is beginning to rub off on you, huh," he said playfully and chuckled.

Oishi Shuichiro shook his egg-shaped head like the motherly person that he was, his two locks of hair in front oscillating as he continued to move his head. Tezuka Kinimitsu merely looked at Ryoma briefly and blinked, then resumed eating his food. Fuji Shuusuke looked at Ryoma quietly as well, his mysterious blue eyes visible, entertainment flickering in them. Kawamura Takeshi had a surprised expression on his face but stayed quiet.

Kaidoh Kaoru just chuckled inwardly. _Brat._

Ryoma escaped from his senpai's wrath of ruffling his hair and snatched his white cap back. He grabbed his tennis equipment and tucked his hands in his pockets and left the table as well. "Girls," he muttered.

xxx

Mikan wiped her eyes with a handkerchief that she had in her pocket. "Those tennis guys are such jerks!"

"Mikan!" she heard someone say. She turned around quickly to see who it was; it was Sakuno, of course. "I'm so sorry," she said, an apologetic look across her face. "I should have never gotten you to come with me to bring that bentou for Ryoma-kun."

"Ah, don't worry about it. I was the one who stuck my own nose into your business. At least now I know that those tennis players are all just a bunch of jerks." Mikan gave Sakuno one of her bright smiles.

"No, you've got it all wrong," Sakuno said defensively and frantically waved her hands in the air. She didn't want Mikan to have a bad impression on the Seigaku tennis team just because of a _little misunderstanding. _"Every one of them, especially the regulars, are really nice. If anything, I think Natsume is the only cold one out of them. Sure, there are some like Kaidoh-senpai who might seem like they're mean but they're not. Tezuka-senpai has a serious face on all the time but he's not mean at all. Let's see... Well, they're not bad people... As for Ryoma..."

"What about him?" Mikan raised an eyebrow at the girl with low braided pigtails.

"He isn't usually like that. Sure, he can be kind of oblivious to people and how they feel so he might seem insensitive, but that's just because..." Sakura paused, her eyes staring down at the ground. "That's just because he's very passionate about tennis and probably has no room for anything else."

"Oh. Is that so?"

Sakuno nodded her head in response, not wanting to say anything more because she was afraid that her voice would tremble. _He doesn't even have room for me, _she thought, remembering all her attempts to make him notice her and how their relationship still hasn't improved even though they've known each other for years already. She still kept trying anyway, being hopeful that he would finally acknowledge her.

"Eh. I guess that if he's Sakuno-chan's friend then I'll believe you and forgive him," Mikan said energetically, back to her usual self.

"Thank you," Sakuno said shyly. _Ryoma-kun..._

"We should head back now. Lunch time is almost over."

"Yeah, we should."

Mikan's stomach let out a loud growl. "Aaaw," she whined. "We didn't even get to eat our own lunch." She heaved a sigh. Then, an idea then came to her; it wasn't anything extraordinary, just a usual thought, but she thought of it as a eureka moment anyway. She grinned widely at Sakuno. "Do you want to eat something with me after school?"

"Sure," Sakuno replied softly. They increased their pace, not wanting to be late for their next class; the teacher was Jinno-sensei and we all know how Jinno-sensei is.

xxx

During the classes that she had for the rest of the day, Mikan stared at the clock, watching the second hand move slowly. Mikan narrowed her eyes at the clock. _Come on, come on, _she thought, as if that would make time pass by faster.

Five seconds.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

The school bell rung, and the last class of the day was over. The brunette quickly put her things away and rushed beside the door, motioning her friend to hurry up as well. Sakuno ran to Mikan's side with a guilty look on her face.

"Let's go eat some dumplings or something. I'm starving!" Mikan said and patted her stomach.

"Um, Mikan," Sakuno began, "I can't go with you today. I'm really sorry!" She bowed down and apologized. "I forgot that I have tennis practice today and I have to stay kind of late."

"Oh." Mikan frowned, obviously displeased. She was really looking forward to eating together with Sakuno after school, like girl friends do.

"I promise I'll go next time."

"Okay." She began to light up again. "I guess I'll go watch you play tennis for a while. I don't think that I've ever watched you play before," she admitted and scratched the back of her head. "Are you good?"

Her friend shrugged. "I'm not really sure. I guess I've been doing pretty well since I have been playing tennis for a few years already."

"Cool."

"I just need to get something before heading to the locker room near the girls tennis courts, okay?"

"Alright. I'm going to go ahead."

"See you there."

Mikan walked in the opposite direction from Sakuno, skipping every now and then to keep herself from getting bored, her pigtails bouncing along with her. She stopped walking and looked around when about fifteen minutes passed.

"Weird," she said to herself, placing her index finger on her chin. "I'm pretty sure that I should have reached the girls tennis courts by now." _Crap, I must have gotten lost again. _

Yes, this is to be expected of Sakura Mikan. She's already been at Seigaku for two months and she still didn't know the entire place. It _was _a pretty big school, but come on, _two months_. Only she could get lost, the bubbly brunette who came from Gakuen Alice. She sighed and continued walking, hoping to see someone who might know where the girls tennis courts were. She heard voices and hoped they belonged to the girls tennis players and hurried to the directions where the voices came from.

She sighed once again, seeing that the voices belonged to the soccer team, not the girls tennis team. _Well, I better ask someone how to get to the girls tennis team. Sakun-chano might be worried. _

"Excuse me!" she called from the sidelines. No one payed attention to her and continued what they were doing. "Excuse me!" she yelled, louder this time.

A guy with messy ebony hair and deep indigo eyes looked at the girl who was calling out. He approached her, the tattoo of a star below his left eye standing out to Mikan. "Yo. You need anything from my team?"

"Um, do you know how to get to the girls tennis courts by any chance?"

"Maybe," he teased.

Mikan pouted. "Do you?"

He let out a small chuckle. "Of course I do. I'm a junior here. How could I not know? Are you new here?"

"Kind of," she said. "I've been here for almost two months already but I still don't know how to get around."

"I'm Andou Tsubasa. I'll take you to the girls tennis courts right now. I've got some free time anyway."

"Really?" Her chocolate brown eyes filled with joy. "My name is Sakura Mikan, a freshman."

"A cute name for a cute girl." He jumped over the small fence-like divider that separated everything else from the soccer field.

"Oi! Buchou*! Where do you think you're going?" they heard someone yell.

"Crap," he said and grabbed Mikan's wrist. "Hurry, let's go!" He dragged her along with him, but she didn't mind. He was bringing her to the girls tennis courts partially as an excuse to get away from practice and partially because he wanted to help out an adorable kouhai* who seemed really nice.

Mikan thanked him when they arrived at their designation, and he rushed back to the soccer field. It was about fifteen minutes away by walking. "See you again soon," he said when they parted.

She grabbed the wired fence of the tennis court, surveying the courts for her friend who had the same brown hair and eyes as she did. She spotted her with the same pigtails as she had, except they were braided. _Sakuno-chan is really hard working, _she thought, watching her practice, beads of sweat falling from her forehead. She could hear Sakuno's cries of "Ha!" when she hit the green tennis ball.

Mikan waited there for half an hour, just watching. She knew that Sakuno had seen her watching already and decided it was time to leave.

She walked past the school gates and headed straight to the nearby city, to the area where there were tons of restaurants and food shops side by side. After a while of being indecisive about what she should buy, she finally settled for some dumplings. She ate them slowly, although she normally would have gulped them all down within a few seconds because she felt lonely eating by herself. She didn't want to go home just yet, where her mother was. Her mother who showed no affection toward her or whatsoever.

Azumi Yuka was her mother's name. She used to be sweet and caring, even when her husband died of a tragic, painful death. A few years ago, her own father died as well. She couldn't take it anymore and broke down. She lost her will to be loving to Mikan and just drowned herself with work to forget the pain and to avoid depression, but became cranky and cold toward Mikan most of the time since she was too tired and stressed out for working too much. Sometimes she even took out her anger and stress on Mikan, saying how it was all her fault that both her husband and her father died when her daughter really had absolutely nothing to do with it.

She ordered more dumplings, eating them slowly as ever.

When she finished, she left the shop reluctantly, smiling at the shop owner when he said, "Thank you! Come again, ne?"

She began to walk home which wasn't that far away; it was around twenty-five minutes away from the city by foot and about fifteen minutes away from school. She shivered, the night wind making it colder than it already was, implying the nearing winter season. She was almost home and began to walk faster: she was in the area that she hated passing through the most, where there were only a few street lights and where it seemed like everyone was always hidden in their homes.

It was very dark and quiet.

She kept glancing left and right, getting a bit paranoid.

She passed by yet another alley. And another. And another.

Suddenly, someone grabbed her and dragged her into one of the many alleys. _What's happening? _Panic. She started to panic. She tried to scream but her mouth was quickly covered by someone's hand.

"We don't need anyone coming to save you and calling the police, now do we?" a masculine voice whispered into her ear. What he said was barely intelligible: his words were slurred and his breath reeked of alcohol.

The girl heard another guy chuckle near the one who was holding her.

_No! No, no, no!_ Mikan kicked and moved around, trying to escape, but her effort was futile; he was too strong. Tears fell from her eyes. _I can't give up. _She bit the person's hand and began to run, yelling "Help!" as loud as she possibly could.

_"_You,_" _the other man came after her and she was caught within a few seconds. He threw her onto the ground, still covering her mouth.

"You're a feisty one, aren't you?" He began to tower her, grabbing her chin and examining her face, then her petite body. "You're not exactly pretty, and you probably have yet to grow, but you'll do."

_Somebody, help me... _More tears poured out of her chestnut brown orbs. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see what would happen next and hoped that this was all just a horrible dream.

"Ow! Who did that?" she heard the guy say angrily. She opened her eyes to see what happened. The man who had been towering her was now standing up, his back facing her.

Another rock flew toward him and hit his face, making him let out another "Ow!" The other guy with him was hit as well, making him let go of Mikan.

"Don't you two know better than this?" A smile could be heard in his voice. Mikan looked to see who it was, seeing the silhouette of a boy with a cap and a tennis racket.

_No way,_ she thought, staring at the figure wide-eyed.

"The cops will be here any second, so I suggest that you two run away," he continued, tossing the stone in his palm up and down. "Or you could stay and wait for them here while I hit you with more rocks."

"We won't forget this," one barked and they both ran out the other end of the alley, leaving Mikan there with her savior. She stayed sitting on the ground, grateful that they weren't able to do anything to her. Tears were still brimming in her eyes, threatening to spill once again, but out of joy and gratitude this time.

He approached her, dropping his tennis racket on the ground. "You alright?" he asked and knelt down in front of her.

She was shocked once again, seeing who the person who saved her was. "E-Echizen R-Ryoma?"

*Buchou - Captain  
*kouhai - underclassman

* * *

**Author's Note: There's chapter two. It wasn't much and it wasn't that long either but I hope you liked it anyway. :D I'm thinking of making this a MikanRyoma fanfic but I'm not too sure yet... I like both Ryoma and Natsume. Ah, decisions, decisions... Thank you for reading :)**

**Review please.**

**Flames are highly accepted.**

**Ja,**

**Aimee.**


	3. My Savior II

**Disclaimer: I do not own either Gakuen Alice or Prince of Tennis.**

**

* * *

**

x

**Chapter Three: My Savior II**

x**  
**

"Oh, it's you-" he said, not knowing her name, "Ryuzaki's friend, right? Are you alright?"

Mikan's chocolate brown eyes were fixed on Ryoma; she stared at him blankly with her mouth hanging open. She nodded, the words on the tip of her tongue not being able to come out. "A-Ah," she managed to stutter.

One phrase kept repeating in her head: _Echizen Ryoma saved me. _She stared at him as if he was the only thing in the world that existed, letting what just happened sink in slowly.

He held out his hand to help her up, much to her surprise.

"Come on. You look like a mess," he chuckled, his honey-colored eyes twinkling with excitement mixed with a bit of relief and fear. The brunette raised her still trembling hand and the young prince of tennis helped her up. He had a faint, awkward look on his face as he gently ushered her out of the alleyway and back out to the street, walking very slowly to match his pace with Mikan's.

"Of course I look like a mess," she replied, beginning to regain her composure little by little. "I was almost— raped," she choked out, fear obvious in her countenance.

"It's a good thing that I showed up then, ne?"

She nodded again, her messy brown locks moving about. They came out of the dark alley, the yellowish light from the two near street lights bright; it revealed both their details better. Mikan really _was _a mess; her uniform wrinkled and dirty from struggling from the two men and being pushed to the ground, her hair knotted and a bit wild with her infamous low pigtails messed up with one ponytail nearly falling off of her hair.

Ryoma's green hair barely showed, his FILA cap still placed on his head. He was wearing a sweater to keep warm from the night wind and had a few beads of sweat on his face out of nervousness from confronting the two men who attacked Mikan.

"When are the cops coming?"

He flashed her a small, brief smile; one that seemed mysterious and inviting to Mikan. "They're not coming. I lied to scare them," he told her quite frankly, not really having anything to hide.

She stared at him once again, incredulous. "What? So- so- so what would have happened? What if-" she began talking endlessly about "what if's," wondering how the hell the situation could have turned out.

Ryoma simply shot her a strange look and went back to the alley briefly to retrieve his tennis equipment. "Calm down. You're talking like a freakin' machine gun."

"But- but-"

"You're alright now aren't you? What are you doing in a place like this at this time anyway?"

"I was walking home... I just came from the city from eating some food," she explained. She wasn't exactly lying to him; she just wasn't telling her the whole truth. She _wanted _to stay in the city until late because she didn't want to go home and see her mother yet.

"Oh. I walk through here to get home too," he said and grinned for no reason at all and being somewhat dense about Mikan's feelings because of what happened. "And like I said earlier, you look like a mess." He reached out to her and touched her hair, slowly removing the ponytail on one of her pigtails, the one that was going to fall off of her hair within a matter of minutes or seconds. "Here," he placed her black ponytail in her small, delicate hands.

"Thanks, I guess," she murmured and stuffed the ponytail in one of the pockets in her uniform's skirt. She opened her bag and rummaged through it briefly, taking out a small compact mirror and flipping it open. She let out a soft laugh, admitting that she _did _look horrible. She slid her other ponytail off, letting her chestnut brown hair fall freely. She ran her hands through her hair a couple of times, using her hands as a brush. She looked into the compact mirror once more and shut it closed, hearing a small clicking sound that meant it was locked. "Better?" she asked Ryoma and let out a half-smile.

He kept his honey-colored eyes on her, observing her. "You look . . . different." His eyes ran up and down Mikan's figure, trying to find out how such a simple action as putting her hair down made her look very different yet the same at the same time. He shrugged again, letting go of the reason why she looked like that. "But, you do look better," he admitted.

"Thanks," Mikan blurted out, a light pink blush spread across her cheeks. "I won't get into any more trouble, so I'll be alright. Thank you, Echizen-kun," she said and flashed one of her bright smiles at him, heading toward the direction that her home was located.

"But I also pass through there to get home."

"Eh? Then, do you want to walk home with me?"

"I guess. I don't think I have a choice."

"Hey!" Mikan pouted. She began to fix up her clothes and tidy herself up a bit before getting home. She thought of some excuses and decided to go with the excuse that she tripped since she didn't see the dog sleeping on the sidewalk and got dirty. It was believable if the person was Mikan since she was clumsy.

"What was your name again?" Ryoma asked, thinking it was something that was similar to Sakuno's name.

"SA-KU-RA MI-KAN," she said loud and proud, emphasizing each syllable so that Ryoma wouldn't forget.

"Right.."

"Um... Sorry for the slap I gave you earlier and um, thank you for saving me," Mikan said rapidly that Ryoma _almost _didn't understand what she said. He smirked—another thing that he got used to doing because of Natsume—upon hearing her apology/gratitude.

"Does that mean that I get something in return?"

Mikan raised an eyebrow at him, wondering what exactly he could possibly want from her. "I guess," she shrugged, having a not-so-good feeling about indirectly promising to do something for him as an apology for slapping him and as thanks for saving her, not to mention her virginity and sanity.

"Excellent."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "What exactly do you plan on making me do?"

He shrugged, honestly not knowing how he could make use of her or how to make her show her gratitude and how sorry she was. "I don't know. I'll let you know when I figure out."

"Okay." She started skipping like a child and twirled around a pole, as if it was her dance partner. She looked back at Ryoma and smiled, tucking behind her ear the strands of hair that danced in her face wildly when the night wind blew once again.

Ryoma didn't know why, but she was pleasant to look at, at the moment, and the bright moon with its illuminating soft light shining on her didn't help either. "Like I said earlier, I think that the way you play tennis is great. Especially being a regular and a freshman, too."

He murmured a low "Thanks," and adjusted his white cap then took it off, thinking that it was getting hotter for some unknown reason. It wasn't exactly hot since the wind was making it sort of cold and his face was the only think that felt hot, but he didn't know why such a thing was happening so he stuffed his cap in his bag and walked near Mikan. _Maybe I'm getting a fever…_

"Ne, Echizen-kun, you really love to play tennis, right? Do you plan on becoming a professional tennis player?" she asked, bringing her face closer to his. He looked away and backed up a bit, his face getting hotter once again.

_Dammit. What the hell is up with this weird fever? _he thought and scowled inwardly. He looked back at the brunette and replied, "I guess. At first I just wanted to beat my dad and I just wanted to keep playing since it was fun, but I'm thinking about becoming a professional athlete when I grow up. I'm not sure though." _Why am I even telling this girl what I think…_

"That's great!" She smiled at him, her brown locks bouncing with each step she took closer to Ryoma. She grabbed his hands and squeezed them tightly, "I'm rooting for you, Echizen-kun. I know you can do it." She skipped to the front of the black gate of a two story house and went in, closing the gate that was about half her height, hearing the soft ringing of the metal resounding. "Good night, Echizen-kun!" she yelled and waved at him, then disappeared from his sight when she went in and closed the wooden door of her house.

"Strange girl," Ryoma murmured to himself and smiled unconsciously, continuing on to his house which wasn't so far away.

xxx

Mikan took off her shoes and said a quiet "I'm home," once she finished neatly putting her black school shoes side by side. She hoped that her mother wasn't drunk or anything; or better yet, Mikan hoped that she was already asleep or still at work. She was mostly likely not home yet since her shoes weren't there when she got in. She headed to the kitchen and found a note from her mother, confirming that she wasn't home. She sighed and heated up the food left for her; she was going to eat alone again.

Ryoma on the other hand, had just gotten home a couple of minutes ago and was sitting down in the dining room with his cousin, his mother, and his father, who have just began eating; Karupin, the cat, was already gulping down his food in his little food bowl.

"Did anything good happen?" Nanjiroh teased his son, pointing his chopsticks at him, meat still squeezed in between them.

Ryoma arched an eyebrow at his old man and stopped eating, giving him a "what-makes-you-say-that" look.

Nanjiroh shrugged. "You seem happier than usual for some reason," he answered his son's questioning look. "It's unusual for you, so it kind of creeps me out."

"I just met an interesting girl," he said, grinning inwardly when the image of Mikan popped up in his mind.

His father sent him a smug look. "Ah, my boy is growing up," he cried, trying to suppress his laughter.

"Old man." Ryoma finished up his food, leaving his dad there, talking to himself about marriage and babies and some other weird things. Ryoma thought about Mikan again. "Strange girl," he told himself again and let out a small chuckle.

xxx

"Echizen-kun, ohayou*!" Mikan greeted Ryoma as they neared the school building, Sakuno walking by her side and Natsume by Ryoma's side.

Sakuno's brown eyes went to Mikan, a confused expression on her face. _Did she just greet Ryoma-kun good morning? I thought she was mad at him with the whole slapping lunch incident yesterday… _"G-Good morning, Ryoma-kun," Sakuno greeted as well, a faint blush creeping onto her cheeks, as usual. Some things just don't change.

"Ohayou," Ryoma replied casually, greeting both brunettes. He took a brief glance at Sakuno's familiar face and turned to Mikan. "I see you have your . . . pigtails back," he said with a hint of disappointment. Natsume raised an eyebrow at him and had a look of curiosity on his face. He watched Ryoma carefully, wondering what could have possible happened between him and Mikan. He looked at Mikan briefly, sending her a short death glare for pouring that strawberry smoothie on him.

"You look great with your gakuran* on. My first time seeing you wear it," Mikan commented and smiled warmly.

"Ah. Later," he said and headed to the building, feeling his "fever" come back again, his face getting a bit hot. He tucked his free hand into his pocket, the other holding his school bag. He wondered why this weird "fever thing" only happened when Mikan was around.

"What's with you and the brunette?" Natsume asked passively. He wasn't really one to poke his nose into other people's business and he didn't want to ruin his image because of one little girl. He _was _intrigued but he could care less. He wasn't that interested in knowing about their relationship. Besides, he was sure that one of the tennis senpais* would bug Ryoma for answers later on and he would find out what happened anyway.

"What was her name again... Sakura?"

Natsume shrugged, not even knowing her name. "I guess. The one with the normal pigtails, not the braided ones."

"Long story. Do you really want to know?"

Natsume turned his head to Ryoma, his red eyes staring blankly at him. He shrugged again. "Not really."

Ryoma chuckled. "I guess not. You're _the _Hyuuga Natsume, after all."

xxx

Ryuzaki Sakuno was interested in knowing what happened between Ryoma and Mikan that made them acquaintances or friends of some sort. She wasn't jealous that Ryoma actually paid attention to her and said something about her hair . . . Right? Mikan was her friend and she thought nothing bad of her. "I didn't know that you and Ryoma-kun were friends, Mikan-chan."

"Long story. Short version is that he kind of saved me last night and I'm really grateful for that. You also explained his um, obliviousness to others' feelings, so I guess we're on good terms now." She smiled at Sakuno and entered the school building. They put on their slippers and walked to their classroom.

Sakuno replied an "Oh," in a small voice when she heard what Mikan had to say. She stayed quiet as they walked to their classroom, thinking carefully about what Ryoma told Mikan that morning. _Ryoma-kun doesn't like pigtails? _she thought, remembering his remark about Mikan's pigtails. She touched her own and looked at her long, brown, braided pigtails.

_Is it time for a new hair style? _she thought, wanting to look better for Ryoma. _Maybe he would notice me at least a bit more. _She smiled widely, already imagining Ryoma saying how great she looked or something of the like. Even a simple comment—anything that would let her know that he pays attention to her—would make her happy. Sakuno continued to follow Mikan quietly.

Mikan slid the door to their first class open and entered along with Sakuno beside her now, only to find two people who were at the very top of their imaginary hate list: Shouda Sumire and Osakada Tomoka.

Sakuno used to be close friends with Tomoka, but that was in the past. Things change over time, just like Sakuno and Tomoka's friendship had. They didn't care about their past relationship; they just plain hated each other now. Tomoka turned into the bitch everyone knew she was capable of becoming, who was self-centered, bossy, and cared mostly about her appearance. She also happened to think that Echizen Ryoma was hers, which really ticked Sakuno off.

Shouda Sumire was best friends with Tomoka and had a similar personality to Tomoka's. She was a social ladder-climbing person who was also self-centered, bossy, overly conscious of herself, and enjoyed making fun of others. She and Tomoka were the presidents of their own little fan club that they both created: the Seigaku Bishounen Fan Club, which used to be the RyomaNatsume Fan Club, but they had to rename it since they like so many other good-looking boys in Seigaku.

"Well, well. If it isn't the two pig-tailed losers," Sumire and Tomoka sneered in unison.

xxx

* Ohayou – "Good morning"  
* gakuran – boys' school uniform  
* senpai – term used to refer to upper classmen

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Review please. :)**

**Flames are highly accepted.**

**Ja,**

**Aimee.**


	4. Mada Mada Dane まだまだだね

**Disclaimer: I do not own either Gakuen Alice or Prince of Tennis.**

**WARNING: Kind of Mary Sue and OOCness at times. (Also possible for Mikan to end up with Ryoma instead of Natsume; this is RyomaMikanNatsume people, remember that.) NO COMPLAINING. You have been warned.**

* * *

x

**Chapter Four: Mada Mada Dane**

x**  
**

"Well, well. If it isn't the two pig-tailed losers," Sumire and Tomoka sneered in unison.

Sakuno flinched a bit, becoming very self-conscious of how she looked; she remembered Ryoma's comment about her hair once again and began to think that maybe—just _maybe_—Tomoka and Sumire knew more about what Ryoma liked about girls. _Maybe I really do need to change a bit... Ryoma-kun always did say that my hair was too long... _Her forehead creased with worry, thinking only of Ryoma, Ryoma, and Ryoma. Fortunately for her, Mikan's loud voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Ah, but I heard that _Tomo-chan _used to have pigtails as well, ne?" Mikan smiled at them nicely, though she really didn't want to underneath. Being the optimistic, friendly, hard-working Mikan that she is, she tried to become friends with Tomoka and Sumire, but they just brushed her off. She admitted that Sumire really did have a pretty face, good height, and that her curves were fine, nothing special or bad. She thought that she was the nicer one of the two (and the smarter one, too) and that both she and Tomoka could be nice if they actually tried... Well, she wasn't so sure about Tomoka anymore but she was pretty sure that Sumire was actually soft underneath.

Tomoka turned red upon hearing Mikan's remark out of both anger and embarrassment, not knowing how to respond. She was definitely good in the athletic department, but she wasn't exactly the sharpest person to do things like think of good comebacks in an instant. But then again, she had Sumire as her friend.

"You aren't exactly smart, are you?" Sumire huffed, "Tomoka _had _pigtails before; she realized how horrible they were and got rid of them, unlike you two."

"Ah, is that so?" Mikan grinned. "You would know, wouldn't you, ne, _Permy_?" Mikan grinned wider, two dimples on either cheek showing. She thought that Sumire's hair was laughable and had a bad perm most of the time and that it looked like seaweed, thus earning the name "Permy" from Mikan. Of course, she didn't hesitate to let Sumire know about her 'unique' opinion, so Sumire knew that Mikan was making fun of her when she was called that oh-so detestable name: Permy.

The brunette continued on her way to her seat which was all the way in the back with Sakuno silently following her.

She dumped her bag on the table and pulled her chair out from under her desk, slumping onto it right after. She rested her head on the table. "The teacher—what was his name again?—he isn't going to be here again, is he?" she asked although she already knew the answer. He has often been absent to their home room class that she's forgotten what his name was already. All she remembered was that he had well-cared for blond hair, playful purple eyes, and was not gay but liked to dress up a lot, especially cross-dress.

"No, I don't think so," Sakuno answered quietly. She didn't remember his name either and was probably going to try and think of his name throughout the rest of the day.

Mikan faced Sakuno when she thought that something was wrong when Sakuno spoke. _Yup, something's definitely bothering her, _Mikan thought upon seeing her close friend's countenance. "What's wrong?" Mikan asked gently.

The other brunette blushed as she often did and fiddled with her fingers. She glanced at Mikan, and for a second and their eyes met, but she soon looked away and stared at the tiled classroom floor once again. "Do you think— do you think that maybe... I should change? You know, like my hairstyle or something..."

"Ehhh?" Mikan said in surprise, half-yelling at Sakuno.

"...Or maybe I shouldn't after all."

Mikan calmed back down and sat herself comfortably on top of Sakuno's desk. "No, no. I mean, I don't know why you would want to change, Sakuno-chan. But if you really want to, then go for it," Mikan said with much zest, a sunny smile gracing her petite face. "But I think that Sakuno-chan looks great whatever she does."

"B-But Shouda and Osakada said..."

"And? You think they know about style or whatever? I mean, look at Sumire's hair! You call that style?" Mikan guffawed, attempting to make Sakuno's sad face disappear and hopefully make her smile as well. Which worked, by the way, seeing as how Sakuno's stifled laugh turned into a clear, acknowledging one.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Mikan-chan," Sakuno said with relief and with a somewhat stronger self-confidence.

"I can change my hairstyle too, if that's what you want," Mikan offered. She always thought about her friends and wanted to make everything easier for them. She always put them before her and has never, _never _been selfish.

Sakuno's large brown orbs which were a few shades darker than Mikan's sparkled with excitement and joy. "Really?" she gushed, happiness obvious in her tone.

"Of course!"

"Thank you, Mikan-chan," Sakuno squealed and hugged Mikan tightly.

"But," Mikan said playfully, "we both have to surprise each other with our hairstyles or whatever kind of changes tomorrow morning, okay? It doesn't have to be that big of a change, it could be a simple change and having bangs or putting down your hair or something, but the change _has _to be noticeable. Or it can't be called a change now can it?"

"I guess you're right," Sakuno agreed. "It's a deal then," she smiled widely and held out her hand for Mikan to shake, which Mikan gladly took in hers and shook.

xxx

Mikan swung her legs to and fro while sitting on Sakuno's desk, waiting for homeroom to be over. She looked out the window and watched trees get blown by the winds, leaves rustling and being carried away in random, spiraling and swaying motions.

"Mikan-chan, have you decided what kind of sports team or club you wanted to join yet? I think everyone needs to join one of the two by next week," Sakuno said, her dark brown eyes staring into Mikan's hazelnut brown ones.

"Oh," Mikan said, focusing her attention on her friend. "I haven't really decided yet." She let out a nervous laugh and scratched the back of her head. She didn't really have anything that she was particularly interested in and was more of a happy-go-lucky, go-with-the-flow kind of person. She didn't want to be involved in any club activities or sports of some sort, but it was mandated by the school for all students to do so. _Maybe joining a club would get my mind off of my mom and my family, _she thought, her eyes darkening a bit.

"Well, if you don't really know then I think you should try out the Seigaku girls tennis team," Sakuno suggested with a kind smile, "I think you'd fit right in. The girls tennis team has really been improving since the boys have, but not as fast though. We came in fourth place for the nationals last year!"

Mikan shrugged. "Oh, what the heck. I guess I'll try it out later. I have a few other clubs and activities that I wanted to check out too, like the cooking club or something. I guess I'll just see you there later."

"Okay. Don't get lost like you did yesterday," Sakuno giggled, trying to suppress her laughter.

Mikan giggled as well, not really understanding why Sakuno wanted to laugh, but she giggled anyway. She stopped after a while and looked at Sakuno with a goofy face. "Hey! You were making fun of me just now, weren't you?"

xxx

Hours passed by and the school day ended for most of the students at Seishun Gakuen. Mikan had just exited one of the school buildings and stretched her arms up to the sky. "Well, I better go on and start checking out those clubs," she said to herself and hummed a merry tune while beginning her little quest.

xxx

On the school's boys tennis courts however, the entire team had already executed training exercises. It was only about two more weeks until the monthly ranking matches began again. Not to mention that the city tournament was going to start in about a month as well, explaining why there were already at least two or three scouts visible.

The entire tennis team had to run around not only the tennis courts, but one fourth of the entire school, which included both the boys and girls tennis courts, the soccer field, and Building One. Did I also mention that they had to run ten laps and finish each lap by two minutes and twenty-five seconds? The punishment was Inui's Aozu version 1.6, just because he was feeling a bit crueler and more sadistic than usual.

Once again, only the regulars and a few seniors and about one or two juniors were left running on the eighth lap. The juniors fell down at the exact same time and panted heavily while lying on the ground. Out of nowhere, Inui appeared with a smug smile and handed them each a tall glass of his Aozu. The two paled and screamed at the mere sight of the drink; they collapsed right after having one gulp of Inui's deadly juice.

The remaining runners heard this and began to pick up their pace.

"Move it!" Kaidoh hissed, scaring the normal senior members and causing them to just miss the finish line and not finish the eighth lap on time. Of course, they screamed and passed out as well, like any normal person would have. Not liking the fact that he was in last place and certain that he didn't want to drink an entire pitcher of Aozu, (the last person to finish the last lap drinks a whole pitcher of Aozu), Kaidoh pushed himself to run faster, feeling the weights on his ankles become heavier and heavier.

"Oi, where do you think you're going, Viper?" Momo yelled, running beside the snake-like player.

"Fshhhuuu," Kaidoh hissed once again.

" 'Fshhhuuu' yourself!" Momoshiro retorted, and somehow, they ended up cheek to cheek, both not wanting to be last place, their old rivalry ensuing.

"Hoi hoi!" Kikumaru yelled energetically and jumped over Kawamura and Oishi and Fuji, who were now right in front of Momoshiro and Viper, who were still fighting with each other.

In the very front of the remaining racing regulars was their captain, Tezuka Kunimitsu. He kept his calm, collected face on but he didn't want to drink Inui's improved Aozu just as much as everyone else. Sickening thoughts came to mind, confirming that he _definitely _did not want to drink the weird blue concoction that Inui just made.

Behind him were the two princes of tennis: none other than Hyuuga Natsume and Echizen Ryoma.

_Must catch up to the captain, _Ryoma thought, beads of sweat trickling down his face and down his neck, his shirt soaked in his sweat. _Inui-senpai has no mercy._

Natsume on the other hand, glanced at Ryoma and eyed him carefully. _Am I really as similar to this guy as they all say? _he thought, his eyes still steady on Ryoma. To him, Ryoma was his destined rival, but Ryoma viewed Natsume as nothing more than one of the people who he was supposed to pass through to finally get to his dad. Natsume thought that tennis was fun and he took pleasure in beating his opponents the most, but he wanted to beat Ryoma for once. He wanted to see what the arrogant brat (like himself) would do once he lost. They didn't get to play against each other often, and for all the times that they have played against each other, it was either a tie, or some drastic weather change occurred, or _something._

They neared Building One, the last place that they needed to pass until they were safe and close to the finish line.

xxx

"Eto, I already visited the gardening club, so next is the soccer team," Mikan told no one in particular and kept walking. She continued to hum the tune that she hummed when she began looking for the clubs and whatnot. She heard loud voices that were all hyped up and were arguing so she went to see what it was. "Holy crap!" She immediately jumped to the side, seeing the rushing tennis players near her. A tall player with bronze hair and oblong glasses whizzed passed her.

She stared at the other players passing by.

"Echizen-kun?" she blurted out bluntly and blinked twice. Ryoma froze upon hearing his name from a feminine voice that he found somewhat annoying but that he has also come to like for some strange reason. He turned his head to see the petite figure of who called him and as he suspected, it was _her. _He jogged in place and she approached him.

"Yo."

Tezuka also stopped running to see why Echizen Ryoma, the one who he had high expectations from, stopped when they were almost at the finish line. To his surprise, Ryoma stopped because of a _girl. _Speechless, he just stared at the two, trying to decipher as much of their conversation as he could since he was out of hearing range.

Natsume came within a few seconds after Ryoma had gotten there and stopped when he saw that Ryoma was just jogging in one spot. _What the hell? _His eyebrows twitched upon seeing the green-haired rookie like himself stopping because of _some girl. _More importantly, it was _that girl. _Natsume gritted his teeth, still remembering how she dared to pour a strawberry shake on him. _The _Hyuuga Natsume. But he was more stupefied that Ryoma, who he thought cared 99.98% about tennis—if not 100%—stopped running, his tennis training, to talk to _her_! He thought that Ryoma had zero percent interest in girls, so he was certainly confused.

Right after Natsume came and stood standing still shortly came the rest of the other tennis players, with the exception of Inui since he already trained during his own free time for much more than what he made the tennis team train. All of them—Kikumaru Eiji, Oishi Shuichiro, Kawamura Takashi, Fuji Shusuke, and even the squabbling Takeshi Momoshiro and Kaidoh Kaoru—froze in place, dumb founded. _Echizen stopped his tennis training for a girl? _They all stared at him in shock.

Unfortunately for them, they only saw the unfamiliar girl smile and wave good-bye saying, "Thank you."

"What?" Ryoma gave all the tennis regulars a weird look since they were all staring at him as if he was some kind of weird specimen on some kind of exhibit—all except Tezuka who began to run again since no one saw him spying on the little prince. "Ah, I get it. You guys are planning on drinking Inui-senpai's Aozu, huh?" Ryoma adjusted his cap and dashed off, leaving his senpais in their shocked state. "Mada mada dane*," they heard him say and watched his rapidly retreating back.

Natsume retaliated immediately and continued running. _Holy shit. I forgot about the Aozu. Better start running now. _He left his senpais in their dazed states, hoping that he would make it in time for the finish line and that he wouldn't have to drink the horrid Aozu with who-knows-what in it.

The rest of the regulars that were left behind scurried like mice and started arguing again. But of course, when all this was done, they were sure of one thing: they were going to find out what was going on with Echizen Ryoma. If he was finally showing some interest toward a girl, then it was finally some time for some major teasing! Especially from Momo-chan. He would never let Ryoma get off so easily.

xxx

"So I guess that I won't be checking out any more sports and stuff," Mikan said, talking to herself again. "Well, whatever." She crumpled the small list in her hands and casually tossed it into a nearby trash can. "Tennis seems fun anyway." She smiled and made her way to the girls tennis courts, excited about getting the chance to play such a sport.

xxx

All the tennis players except for Tezuka were sprawled out on the floor, panting heavily, trying to catch their breaths. Luckily for them, Inui was too horrified at the time that they all had gotten back to the starting point/finish line that he completely forgot about the whole Aozu thing.

Inui had his notebook and pen in his hands, a very puzzled look on his face. "I don't understand," he mumbled to himself, "my data was wrong? They should have finished those laps easily yet they're . . . tired? Why?" He walked away, thinking about what could have possibly happened while they were running around one-fourth of the school. "I have to improve their training strategies by _a lot. _They seem to have very low speed and stamina," he continued saying, scribbling more and more notes in his notebook.

"Matches in fifteen minutes," Tezuka announced and walked away as well. He was reluctant to do so since he was also interested in what Ryoma had to say about a— a girl. But he told himself that he had to be mature. That he was the captain of the team and that such petty things should not be bothered with . . . But he still wanted to know anyway.

"Echizen!" Momoshiro took off the little prince's cap off once again and ruffled his hair. "We saw it! You were talking to a girl! You little rascal."

"Yeah, yeah! Tell us about it OChibi-chan!" the red-headed regular tennis player said, practically bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Stop it," Ryoma tried to say, pushing Momo-chan-senpai away and trying to get his precious cap back. "I just talked to a girl. Big deal."

"Yes, do tell, Ryoma. This is very unlike you," Fuji said, his blue eyes dancing with curiosity.

Kawamura approached them slowly and quietly. "Guys, shouldn't you leave Echizen alone?" he asked shyly. Fuji looked at him and handed him his yellow racket; and he immediately became active instead of shy. "Come on, Echizen! Tell us what is up with you and that girl!"

"Alright, alright," he said and successfully snatched his white cap back and placed it on his head. "She's just a girl. Sakura Mikan . . . I think."

"What else, what else?" Momoshiro urged him to continue, unsatisfied with his answer.

"She's . . . interesting . . . I guess . . ." Ryoma said, feeling his cheeks become hot again. _Damn fever._ The regulars broke into a joyous frenzy when he finally answered and only began to pester him more. Their "baby" was finally growing up.

As for Natsume, he was just sitting comfortably on a nearby seat. Yes, he heard it all. He smirked. Just as he thought, the senpais would get him his wanted answer. _Sakura Mikan, huh. Maybe that girl isn't just a useless, annoying idiot. _His ruby eyes looked at Ryoma; a competitive feeling burning inside of him, his smirk grew wider. _You _did _manage to catch _the _Echizen Ryoma's attention after all._

xxx_  
_

* Mada mada dane – Ryoma's "catch phrase" in the manga & anime of PoT. It means something along the lines of: "you still have a long way to go."

* * *

**Author's Note: There's chapter four. I hope you liked it! I took down the poll on my profile and replaced it with a new one. The poll was: "Which personality do you prefer Mikan to have in my fan fictions?" Results:**

**Sweet and Cheerful: 10 Votes - 52%  
Cold and Uncaring: 5 Votes - 26%  
Cool and Mysterious: 3 Votes - 15%  
With a Facade: 1 Vote - 5%  
Optimistic and Hard Working: 0 Votes**

**NEW POLL ON MY PROFILE: For my fan fiction "The Two Princes of Tennis," who should Mikan end up with: Echizen Ryoma or Hyuuga Natsume?  
VOTE!**

**Review please. :)**

**Flames are highly accepted.**

**Ja,**

**Aimee.**


	5. Hairstyles, Tests, and an Agreement

**Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to none other than michiruchama, Mi-chan! I hope that this chappie serves as a reward or something for you doing all those tests and stuff. :) You guys thank her because I updated earlier than usual 'cause of her.**

* * *

**.****  
**

**Chapter Five: Hairstyles, Tests, and an "Agreement" with Hyuuga Natsume**

.

Mikan stood in front of a mirror hanging up on the wall, staring at herself long and hard with her hair falling down a few inches below her shoulders. She was already all dressed up and ready for school, but she couldn't decide what in the world she had to do with her hair. She even got up earlier than usual just to figure it out.

"I don't want to change my hairstyle! I like my pigtails just fine," she whined. _But this _is _for Sakuno, _she thought and forced herself to try and decide on what to do with her hair.

"Let's see," said the brunette, grabbing the brush from a nearby table and brushing her hair, holding it in place with her free hand. She tied it with a scrunchy and took a good look at herself in the mirror. She grinned and gave herself a thumbs up afterward. _It's a noticeable change, right? _she asked herself, gently patting the hair that was on the top half of her head which was now tied into a half-ponytail.

She shrugged and grabbed her bag to leave for school. _If Sakuno-chan says the change isn't noticeable, then I can just change it later. _She wiggled her feet into her black shoes and without further ado, she skipped out of her house, unable to wait to see Sakuno's reaction. A smiled came upon her face at the thought of Sakuno's own smiling face, making her want to hurry and get to school as soon as possible, and she was, except...

After walking a few blocks, a dark green-haired someone called out her name. "Sakura?"

The brunette stopped walking and turned around to see who it was. "Echizen-kun! Ohayou," she chirped and waited for Ryoma so they could walk to school together.

"Ohayou." He stopped walking and looked at her from head to toe as if inspecting her, then continued walking again. "It seems that you decided to put your hair down . . . Kind of..."

"Oh yeah, I did. Sakuno-chan and I agreed to change our hairstyles and stuff," she smiled her sunny smile at him.

"Oh. Is that so..." His voice trailed off. _Ryuzaki's hair is too long..._

Mikan bobbed her head up and down, feeling the free stands of hair that weren't bound by her ponytail brush against her skin. A frown formed on her lips, just realizing something that was said a couple of minutes ago already. "Hey! You called me Sakura! My name is Mikan. M-I-K-A-N. So call me Mikan."

"But Sakura is your name, too," he said frankly and looked at the brunette in a weird way.

"Well, yeah... But still, call me by my first name, okay?" said the brunette, inching her face closer to his.

Ryoma felt his face heat up _again _and looked away, slightly shoving Mikan away from himself. "Okay, just stop doing that," he grunted.

"Doing what?"

"Nothing, forget it." A displeased frown was on his lips and he muttered something about not feeling good. _This damn fever is starting to get on my nerves now..._

"Well?" Mikan placed her hands on her hips and arched an eyebrow at Ryoma, as if she was expecting something.

"What?"

She pouted. "Aren't you going to say anything about my hair?"

"It looks better down."

Mikan shook her head. _Oh, well. _"Ne, Echizen-kun."

The two were but a few steps from the school. "Ah."

"Since you're going to call me Mikan, can I call you Ryoma?"

"Whatever."

"Yay!" The brunette was about to jump, but suddenly tripped. "Itai*," she groaned.

"Clumsy, aren't we?" a masculine voice said and chuckled.

Mikan got up from the ground and dusted her skirt, looking at the person who said that. "Hyuuga Natsume," she breathed out. She furrowed her eyebrows, obviously not pleased to see him first thing in the morning. She did _not _like the fact that he looked at her underwear _and _that he hit her with a tennis ball.

"Ohayou, strawberry print. I see that you finally lost those pigtails of yours."

Mikan's face turned pink upon hearing his comment. "Pervert," she muttered and was about to argue with him when she heard Sakuno's voice. "Mikan-chan?" Mikan turned around quickly and saw the "new" Sakuno. She beamed with excitement and rushed to Sakuno, squeezing her hands tightly. "Kawaii*!" Mikan gushed, then proceeded to examining her friend's hair. Being the Mikan that she is, she didn't notice that Sakuno's hair was cut to the exact same length that her hair was and with the same exact style, too. The only difference was that Sakuno's hair was a few shades darker than Mikan's hair, that her bangs were parted to the side, and that she still had her flower hair clips pinned on her bangs to keep them in place.

"Thanks," Sakuno blushed and avoided eye contact with Mikan. _I guess she didn't notice..._

"Ryuzaki."

Sakuno's head immediately snapped up at the sound of his voice. "H-Hai*!" Of course, that voice belonged to none other than Echizen Ryoma.

"Hmm. You cut your hair."

"Y-Yeah." _He noticed! Ryoma-kun noticed, _she thought and smiled.

"Ne, ne, Ryoma, don't you think she looks cute?" Mikan smiled widely at him and stood behind Sakuno.

Mikan's question made Sakuno blush harder, feeling her face get hotter and hotter by each passing second. She _was _embarrassed that Mikan asked that question, but she also wanted to know Ryoma's answer. _I want to know what you think, Ryoma-kun... I did this for you. _She looked at Ryoma after not receiving her awaited reply. He was facing the school, ready to leave at any second. Sakuno guessed that he wasn't planning on answering Mikan's question. She looked down, disappointed and a bit hurt.

"Wah!" Mikan shrieked. "What are you doing?" she growled.

Both Sakuno and Ryoma turned to Mikan in alert. Sakuno looked at Mikan with a worried look, unable to do anything to help her friend. Ryoma didn't know why, but he suddenly felt irritated. Why? Because Natsume stood beside Mikan and had wrapped his arm around her.

"Oh, shut up. I know you like this, little girl," he whispered into Mikan's ear. His lips brushed against her ear and she felt his hot breath, making a faint blush creep onto her cheeks.

"Natsume, let's go," Ryoma said, trying to suppress his growing anger.

Natsume jerked his hand up and down at Ryoma in a fashion that told him to get lost, like a dog, seeming like he was saying _"Shoo."_ He smirked and thought, _Eh, this will be a pretty nice competition with Ryoma. Especially when I win and get this girl to like me. _"You go ahead," he said, "I want to spend some time with this girl over here."

"Whatever. Ja," said the younger prince. He headed toward the school building, unable to understand why he was getting so irritated and possibly even mad when all his tennis _buddy,_ Natsume, did was put his arm around that clumsy, dense brunette.

"Let go!" Mikan half-yelled, looking up at Natsume.

"You're so noisy, little girl," he said and let go of her, sticking his pinky finger into his ear and twisting it back and forth, as if he lost his hearing ability in that ear due to Mikan's loud voice and was trying to regain it.

"Don't touch me like that if you don't want me to yell then! Pervert!" she raised her voice at him, feeling more irritated with this _supposed _tennis prodigy than when he launched a tennis ball at her and hit her directly on her head with pin point accuracy.

A mocking grin appeared on his lips. "Pervert? That means that I'm somehow sexually attracted to you," he scoffed. "As if that would ever happen! _Me _liking _you? _Good one, strawberries," he said, trying to suppress his laughter.

Mikan's face turned red out of both anger and humiliation. But all she could do was put on an angry face, stomp her foot, and send Natsume glares since she didn't want to be bullied by him or his fan girls. She had a feeling that there would be no end to it, if it did happen.

He bent down and whispered something to her before he left. "Come to the rooftop at lunch time, won't you?" he asked which sounded more like an order to Mikan and headed toward the school building, just as Ryoma did moments ago.

"Mikan-chan, are you alright?" Sakuno asked worryingly.

Mikan looked at Sakuno and puffed her cheeks. "That— that— that jerk!" she burst out and stomped her foot for the umpteenth time.

"M-Mikan, calm down," her friend tried reasoning when she suddenly remembered something. "Oh! Did you do the all the homework and projects that were due today?"

Mikan looked at Sakuno again and blinked. "Homework? Projects? What are you talking about. . .Oh. MY. GOSH!" Her eyes widened and she began to panic. Judging by her actions, she forgot that they had any assignments due at all, like always.

Sakuno sighed. "So you didn't do any of the essays and stuff? Did you at least study for the tests today?"

"Tests? AHH! I completely forgot! Sakuno-chan, help me," she whined, shedding tears that could probably fill an entire river.

Sakuno sighed again. _Mikan-chan, really._

ｘｘｘ

The bell rung and out came Sakura Mikan from her fifth period class along with Ryuzaki Sakuno by her side, her head hanging low with a depressing aura around her.

"Mikan, don't be sad, it's okay." She patted Mikan's back and thought of ways to try and comfort her child-like friend. "It's lunch time, so I'll treat you. I'll buy you anything you want if you stop being sad," Sakuno offered, knowing how much Mikan loved food and how much this was going to hurt her wallet.

Mikan's large brown orbs widened and sparkled with joy. "Really?"

"Of course," Sakuno giggled, finding Mikan's reaction quite adorable and comical at the same time.

At the moment she was about to jump for joy, she stopped and frowned, becoming depressed again.

"What's wrong?"

"No matter how much I want to, I can't go with you today for lunch." Mikan heaved a sigh. "I have to... meet this person. It's important, _I think,_" she muttered, making the 'I think' part unintelligible to Sakuno.

"Oh. That's too bad..."

"I'm okay, really, Sakuno-chan." Mikan flashed her usual cheery smile at Sakuno, not wanting to make her feel bad or guilty because of her. "You go ahead and eat, okay? I'll see you next period."

Sakuno smiled back at Mikan. "Okay. See you later then."

Mikan watched Sakuno's retreating form and sighed. She turned around and began heading toward the stairs. Up, up, up she went, climbing a few flights of stairs and getting near to the rooftop. Finally, she stood in front of the door that led to the rooftop. She placed her hand on the cold, silver door knob and turned it slowly. Ever so slowly and cautiously, she poked her head through the small opening from the door. Her eyes surveyed the place for _that person; _she found him facing the high, wired fence that prevented students from falling or doing something idiotic.

"Hyuuga Natsume?" She opened the door wide and stepped onto the rooftop, seeing how wonderful the day was. She closed the door behind her softly and stared at his back.

"I knew you would come, strawberries," he said, not turning around to face her. This riled her up a bit.

She marched to his side. _The nerve! He asks me to come up here to meet me and doesn't even bother to greet me? No, not even a short 'hello'? And he called me strawberries! Pervert! _"Now, lookie here, mister," she paused and looked at Natsume and what he was staring at.

He was clinging to the wired fence, watching the boys tennis team below, giving up their time to eat lunch to practice rigorously.

"Uwah! Everyone is so hardworking and cool! Who is that guy with the glasses?" she asked excitedly.

"Tezuka-buchou," Natsume stated monotonously.

"Look! The scary guy who looks like a snake looks really strong! And the guy with the spiky hair and the guy with the yellow racket, too!"

"Kaidoh-sempai, Momo-sempai, and Kawamura-sempai."

"Ryoma looks so cool too!"

"Of course he does. He's great. He's a prodigy like me," Natsume said frankly, the expression on his face unchanging.

Mikan tilted her head to the side. "Ne, Hyuuga-san, why aren't you down there and practicing like everyone else?"

The raven-haired prince of tennis placed his hand in his pockets and casually walked away from the fence. He sat himself down under the shade. "Too lazy."

"Eh? But— but— why?"

He shrugged. "Like I said, lazy."

Mikan frowned. She didn't like people who had an attitude like Natsume's. He was gifted, yet he just does nothing and just sits his ass down. She had to work hard to get the things she wanted. Unlike him, _she _didn't get what she wanted just like that. She wasn't special or anything, so she couldn't just sit around idly. "Anyway, why did you tell me to come here, Hyuuga?" she spat out.

"Hyuuga, Hyuuga, Hyuuga. You sound like people who bicker my dad. It's Natsume."

"Answer my question, please."

"You owe me a favor; you know, for that smoothie that you poured on my head."

"But—" the brunette tried to protest.

"I _said, you _owe _me_ a favor." He sighed warily. "It's simple, so even an idiot like you could do it."

"Idiot! Who are you calling—" she burst out again but stopped once seeing Natsume's murderous glare.

"Don't interrupt me. All I want you to do is come to the rooftop everyday for lunch. Alright?"

"Why?"

"Because I said so. Or else." He sent her a threatening look. "Got it?"

Mikan nodded, not wanting to say anything to anger the older prince. She hesitated, but finally said, "What am I supposed to eat everyday then? And, and, what if I want to practice for tennis myself? I just joined the team, too..." _Besides, I shouldn't owe you any favors since you hit me with a tennis ball anyway..._

"Pig. Bring a bento for yourself or something. As for the tennis, get someone to help you like that Ryuzaki or someone, I don't care. It's not my business."

Mikan frowned. "What about if it's raining?"

"Then you're free to do whatever the hell you want. Any more questions?"

"Um, why am I doing this again? I don't like you."

Natsume stood up, his 5'9" figure much taller than Mikan who was a mere 5'4" compared to Natsume's still growing body. "Are you trying to say "no" to my orders, strawberries?" A playful yet very malicious smirk formed on his lips.

Mikan gulped and immediately shook her head. _This guy is scary, _she thought, wanting to cry and run away.

"Good. See you tomorrow then. Ja," he said stoically and left Mikan standing there. _Just you wait, Ryoma. We're both amazing, I'll admit. You're a friend of mine, too. But when it comes to competition, I just won't lose. _"And since Sakura Mikan is on that list, then I _have _to win."

ｘｘｘ

*itai - ouch, ow  
*kawaii - cute  
*hai - yes

* * *

**Author's Note: Yay! Chappie five done. To get things straight, Natsume is NOT evil; he's just really competitive with Ryoma since they're both prodigies and are really amazing :D Well, more of Natsume is showing and you will see even more of him as the story progresses. I think it'll reach fifteen chapters _in the least. _I hope this chappie wasn't disappointing though. As for the votes, so far, there are 21 votes and it might surprise some of you. And the results areeee:**

**Ryoma! : 10 votes: 47%**  
**Natsume! : 10 votes: 47%**  
**Can't decide :/ : 1 vote: 4%  
Neither: 0 votes**

**& I'm not saying that whoever wins will determine who Mikan ends up with in the end; I just want to see who has more votes ;D So vote if you haven't already done so. :)**

**Review please! Flames are highly accepted.**

**Ja,**

**Aimee.**


	6. I’ve Found Myself a Coach, Kind of

ｘ

**Chapter Six: I've Found Myself a Coach . . . Kinda.**

ｘ

The sky was an orange-pink color, a faint light purple hue visible. On the boys tennis courts were none other than the regulars who had decided to stay in school for some extra time. Approximately ten days were left until the school rankings for the regular spots, leaving the city tournament only three weeks away; and of course, all the regulars wanted to be in top shape, so here they were now, practicing. They all might be as different as night and day or as different as white and black, but one thing was for sure: they all had at least one thing in common, and that would be that they all hated to lose.

"OChibi-chan, your doubles tennis has improved a bit, but you still suck at it," Eiji said, trying to catch his breath.

"You did well, Echizen," the vice-captain agreed. "And Hyuuga did, too."

"Tch. Singles is my forte," Ryoma murmured and sat himself down on the ground. He wasn't the only one; everyone else was either lying down or sitting down out of exhaustion. Of course, Tezuka Kunimitsu was an exception. He sat on a bench quietly, a few beads on sweat on his forehead. "Good games, everyone," he said calmly, the expression on his face unchanging.

"Tezuka-buchou has no mercy," Momoshiro complained.

"Neither does OChibi-chan here," Eiji said and grinned, "but Oishi and I still beat him and OChibi-chan #2 anyway."

"Hmph. Why do you still call me OChibi anyway? I'm five foot nine inches just like Natsume and am still growing," Ryoma stated.

"He's got a point," Natsume said stoically.

Eiji smiled widely and turned to Natsume. "OChibi #2, don't gang up on me with OChibi #1! You guys are the youngest regulars, not to mention the only freshmen regulars."

"I don't want to be called 'OChibi'!" the two princes shouted simultaneously.

"Eh, then what am I supposed to call you two?"

"Our names."

"Nya~ Okay; OChibi #1 and OChibi #2 it is."

"Ah, whatever. Idiotic sempai," Natsume muttered and headed to the locker room. The rest followed soon after.

ｘｘｘ

Ryoma and Momoshiro were planning on ambushing Eiji to treat them to some food, but the red-headed acrobatic player knew better and had made his escape already. He's learned after they did that to him a couple of times. So there they were, walking home together.

Ryoma looked at Momoshiro, hesitant about asking his senpai the question that was floating around in his mind. He _would _have asked his fellow freshmen such as Katou Kachirou, Mizuno Katsuo, and Horio Satoshi—scratch that, Horio was unreliable and would probably tell _everyone _about Ryoma's so-called troubles. He would have asked the other two freshmen (not Horio) but it just seemed better for him to ask Momoshiro Takeshi, the one who he was closest to on the tennis team and who he could surely confide in. Although, he was pretty sure that Momo would make fun of him and tease him about his problem or whatever it was sooner or later.

Breaking the silence, Momoshiro said, "You're rather quiet today. What's bugging you? Is it because Kikumaru-senpai didn't treat us to burgers?"

Ryoma shook his head and looked away, rather embarrassed of the question he was about to ask. "Iie*. Momo-senpai, I think I've gotten a weird sickness of some sort."

"Why didn't you say so earlier then? Do you want to play tennis that bad? Your health is more important, you know."

"It's not that. Lately, I've been getting these weird . . . 'fevers.' But they only last for a few seconds or minutes or so."

"Fever?" Momo scratched the back of his head and sent Ryoma a confused look.

"Ah," Ryoma continued. "Thing is, I only get these fevers when I'm around . . . this girl."

"Oh! A girl," the older player mused.

"Yeah. But that's not all. Sometimes, my pulse starts to race when I'm around her and I really get annoyed and irritated for some unknown reason when she gets too close to a guy or if a guy gets too close to her." He sighed and added, "Well, I guess that doesn't count since the girl is very annoying herself."

Momoshiro chuckled and grabbed his kouhai*. As always, he ruffled Ryoma's hair, a large grin on his lips. "A girl! Is it Coach Ryuzaki's granddaughter, Sakuno-chan?"

"No."

"Ehh?" Momo looked at him in surprise. "Then who is it?"

Ryoma stayed quiet, ignoring his senpai's question.

The spiky haired player sighed in defeat then smiled. "You're not sick, Echizen. You're not sick at all. You have a crush. Either that or you're already in love." The elder tennis player looked at his kouhai, eyes overly hopeful and mischievous. _Ah, it's good to be young,_ Momoshiro thought, even though he wasn't that much older than Ryoma.

Looking up at his senpai, Ryoma blinked and stared at Momoshiro blankly, as if he had just spoken in a foreign language and didn't understand a word he said.

"Your so-called "fevers" aren't fevers at all. Not at all. When you feel your cheeks or your entire face heat up, you blush. You know, kind of like when you're embarrassed," He laughed, trying to picture the arrogant kid blush. It was only once that Momoshiro had ever seen Ryoma blush, and that was when Ryoma was embarrassed of having a beginner's book about Doubles Tennis. "Remember that time when you had your doubles beginner's book? Anyway, iIt feels hot because your blood rushes to your cheeks; you might feel the same way sometime when you're really angry. The second feeling that you've had—when you get irritated when she's with other guys—is probably jealousy. It's normal, especially for teens like us, so don't worry about it," he explained. "Although . . . It's also really hard to imagine you getting jealous as well..."

"A crush, huh," Ryoma muttered. He himself was rather surprised at Momoshiro's diagnosis of him. He didn't expect to be . . . "in love."

"So, who's the lucky girl?"

Ryoma's lips formed a thin line. "No one."

"C'mon!" the other male coaxed, excited. "I never thought the day would come that you would become a stud," he said, mock-crying.

Ryoma kept his lips pressed together, then let out a sigh. "Sakura Mikan," he finally admitted, albeit somewhat reluctantly. "And I'm not a stud," he added, unaware of how childish he sounded.

"Sure, sure. Is Sakura Mikan the girl you stopped for when we were training before? Kawaii!* You sure know how to pick a girl," Momoshiro teased.

"Well, she's kind of dense and is really clumsy so it's kind of unbelievable that I like her. Are you sure you're right, senpai?"

"Like hell I'm right. Besides, you're pretty dense too, kid. So that just makes you guys a perfect match."

Ryoma felt his cheeks warm up. "Shut up. What about you and the captain of Fudomine's younger sister, Tachibana Ann?"

Momo blushed as well. "Why you— hey, come back here!"

ｘｘｘ

Mikan sighed, warily walking up the staircase that led to the rooftop. Today was the fourth day that she was meeting _him _on the rooftop. They haven't really been doing much up there except insulting each other and staying quiet and watching the boys tennis players practice. In her hands was a small bentou she made for herself. _Why am I even doing what that mean guy says? _she asked herself, then reminded herself that it was because Hyuuga Natsume was a very scary and powerful person. She stepped onto the rooftop and found Natsume clinging to the chain-link fence again.

"You're late."

Mikan puffed her cheeks and sat down in the small shaded space. "It's not my fault! I had to lie to Sakuno-chan again just so that I can come here." Guilt started to make itself known to Mikan; she felt really bad for lying to her dear friend.

Natsume sat down against the wall beside her, wearing his usual poker face. "Then don't lie to her," he said simply.

"Are you crazy? I can't say that I ditched her to stay here with you. I was forced to come here; forced, I say, forced!"

"You're too loud."

The brunette puffed her cheeks again. "Anyway, if anyone finds out that I'm here alone with you, your fan girls would definitely find out and kill me." She scowled. "I'm too young to die."

She opened her bentou, her mouth watering at the sight of food. "Itadakimasu!*" she said and began eating.

The raven-haired tennis prince watched her quietly while she ate. "What a glutton," he commented inwardly.

After a while, Mikan looked at Natsume and blinked. "You're not eating?"_Come to think of it, he hasn't eaten anything the whole time that we've met here, I think._

"Hn."

She frowned at his unenthusiastic reply and concluded that he forgot his lunch or that he didn't eat lunch at school or something along those lines.

ｘｘｘ

When they returned to school on Monday, Natsume still didn't have any lunch. Mikan decided that he didn't eat lunch. Or that he probably already ate—that is, until she heard his stomach growl. She laughed hysterically, pointing at him mockingly while he muttered, "Shut up, ugly."

_I guess he doesn't have lunch after all, _she thought and giggled.

The following day, she had two bentous in her small hands instead of one: one was for her and the other was for Natsume. She knew that he was mean, but she couldn't just let him starve while she ate right in front of him; she was Sakura Mikan who was kind, and her grandpa told her, when he was still among the living, to help others even if or when they are supposedly wrong.

"Here," she said, a friendly smile on her face as she held out the bentou to him.

He arched an eyebrow at her, suspicious. "What the hell is that?"

"A bentou, you dummy. Now take it."

Still suspicious of her friendly and generous act, he narrowed his eyes at her. For all he knew, she could have poisoned the food. "I thought you hated me. Why the sudden change of mind?"

"I _do _still hate you," she admitted quite frankly, "but I can't eat while you sit there and starve."

No reply was heard from the ruby-eyed prince of tennis.

"Mou, just take it already! I woke up extra early just to make it, so take it!" she said, rather impatient and shoved the bentou to the raven-haired idiot, as she referred to him.

Placing it on his lap, he did nothing but stare at it in silence.

"Eat!" came the brunette's screeching voice.

Hesitantly, he took off the lid ad stared at the food for a while. "Itadakimasu." He took an onigiri* in one hand and had his chopsticks in the other; he bit into the onigiri and popped part of the meat thing into his mouth, whatever it was. "A miracle," he said, "I'm not dead."

Mikan ignored his comment and began to eat as well.

When it was almost time for their lunch period to end, Mikan fixed both of the bentos and headed for the door.

"Oi," Natsume said just as she was about to take the first step down the stairs and close the door, stopping her in her tracks. "Arigatou,*" he muttered just loud enough for the brunette to hear him, a faint blush spread out across his cheeks.

"You're welcome, Natsume-kun," she replied, her sunny smile plastered on her face just before she left for class, she too, blushed lightly and was unaware of it.

"And I wasn't starving," he said in a low voice, although Mikan had already gone.

ｘｘｘ

That afternoon, Mikan and Sakuno headed toward the girls tennis courts in their proper tennis attire: tennis shoes, a skirt to move around in freely, etc.

"Hi, Mikan-chan, Sakuno-chan," a fellow freshman greeted them when they got there. "Ano,* both the captain and the vice-captain and even the coach aren't here today. They said to practice individually, however you want."

"Free time? Thanks for telling us, Nina-chan."

"All of the courts are already taken," Sakuno said in dismay. "I guess I'll go watch the senpais and practice on my own a bit later on."

"Okay. I'll go somewhere else to practice then. See you later, Sakuno-chan!" Mikan waved and went off to find somewhere where she could practice, her new orange racket in one hand and a capsule of tennis balls in the other. She wanted to practice already since she just started to play tennis about a week ago. After a while of looking, she came upon the perfect place—well, what she thought was perfect anyway.

There was a tall, flat, gray wall which was unlike the other buildings and walls that were covered in glass and bricks and stones with fancy designs. In front of that wall was a wide, empty space with no obstacles to get in her way while she practiced; and to top it off, she could wash her face or drink some water at the nearby drinking fountain and sinks. Not so far from those were a vending machine and a few benches to rest on.

She opened the capsule and took out one tennis ball, throwing it into the air and getting into a stance to hit the ball.

ｘｘｘ

Echizen Ryoma walked to the vending machine, his racket clipped in between his left arm and his upper body. It was time for the boys tennis team to have a break; in fact, they actually had free practice time today. Like the girls' team, their coach and the captain and the vice-captain weren't present, most likely because of the upcoming in-school rankings and the nearing city tournament. They were probably discussing about the matches or registering to play at the tournament or _something_.

Digging his hand into his pocket, he fetched a 100 Yen coin and inserted it into the vending machine, pressing the button to get his drink. In a matter of seconds, his grape-flavored Ponta came out. He drank it, gulping down the cold goodness and sat himself down on one of the benches. He heard a faint shout, his ears perking up, curious. Maybe the time that the captain was gone wasn't going to be so boring after all.

He gulped down the last few drops of his juice and threw it into a trash can then proceeded to see where the faint cries and shouts were coming from.

ｘｘｘ

A smirk formed on his lips as he watched a brunette swing her orange racket again and again, trying her best to hit a tennis ball as many times as she could in a row. She swung her racket once more and just missed the ball which bounced on the floor.

"Hmm, mada mada dane," he said.

"Ryoma! What are you doing here?"

"Captain not here. Free practice." Momo's words echoed in his mind: _You have a crush. Either that or you're already in love. _He shook his head to keep his senpai's words away and walked towards the brunette.

He placed his arms around her and held the back of her hands with his, showing her how to have a better stance.

Mikan blushed, his closeness making her heart race a bit.

"Swing like this," he said and pulled her closer to him, demonstrating how she should hit the ball. "And bend your knees less," he said and showed her how her knees should be angled.

"O-Okay," she stuttered.

Finally, he let go off her, the smell of her strawberry-scented self almost intoxicating to him.

Mikan picked up the tennis ball and did as Ryoma told her to do. Much to her delight, she was hitting the ball better, faster, stronger, and with more control.

"Ryoma, thank you!" she yelped and hugged him. Naturally, Ryoma blushed and damned himself for getting so embarrassed because of a mere hug. She pulled away and the prince found himself somewhat disappointed.

"No problem," he said, trying to make it seem like it was no big deal.

"Ne, Ryoma," she said energetically, an idea coming to mind.

"What is it?"

"By any chance . . . Would you like to be my tennis coach? Or teacher? Or something?" she asked, almost pouting.

_It's just like Momo-senpai said, 'Kawaii...' _He shrugged at her in response. "I don't know if I can."

"Mou, then can you help me at times like you did today?" She tilted her head to the side, staring at him innocently with her brown orbs.

"I guess so. You're kind of good for a beginner though," he said, wondering if what he said was considered as a compliment.

"Really?" Mikan squealed in delight. "Thank you!" She hugged him again, unaware of the effect her hugs had on the poor prince. "Really, thank you," she said with the most sincerity she was able to convey. She pulled away, showing her usual bright smile at him. _Yatta!* I've found myself a coach . . . Sort of._

* * *

*kouhai – lower classmen  
*iie - no  
*kawaii - cute  
* Itadakimasu – phrased used to give thanks before eating a meal; "Thank you for the food" (literally "I ((will) humbly) receive")  
*onigiri - rice ball  
*Arigatou – thank you  
*ano - um  
*Yatta! - yes!; alright! (I think it _might _literally mean "I did it!" in Japanese, but I'm not sure.)

* * *

**Author's Note: Aaah, Natsume is leading for the poll. By ten votes. Gosh. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter like all the others; though I have to admit that I find this as a somewhat boring and disappointing chapter. I'm sorry if it didn't satisfy you :'( Next one will be better, (hopefully). & Thanks for all the reviews! I love them; review=my drug. lol. Poll results are:**

**Ryoma! : 16 votes: 36%**  
**Natsume! : 26 votes: 59%**  
**Can't decide :/ : 2 vote: 4%  
Neither: 0 votes**

**You guys are joy killers, you know? Voting too much for Natsume. Hmph. Go Ryoma, you still have a chance! Go, go, go! :P**

**Review please! Flames are highly accepted.**

**Ja,**

**Aimee.**


	7. How Natsume Shows His Gratitude

**Author's Note: In Japan, secondary education (middle school) has grade seven, eight, and nine, and the students are usually ages twelves to fourteen. That's why the freshmen here in high school (like Mikan) are fifteen. And I'm pretty sure that there are three years of high school in Japan as well, so the 10th graders here like Ryoma are freshmen, the 11th graders like Momoshiro are juniors, and the 12th graders like Tezuka are seniors.**

ｘ

**Chapter Seven: How Natsume Shows His Gratitude**

ｘ

The in-school rankings had gone by so soon. For the boys' team, there wasn't really anything new: the ten regulars who were already regulars kept their spots secured, not bothering to show any sympathy or mercy to the other normal members who were chosen to participate. As for the girls tennis team, it was pretty much the same as well. Except, with only a week's practice, Mikan scored 2-6 against a normal senior member, which greatly surprised people. Her's senpai's name was Kotoko and was only playing around with Mikan, so she challenged Mikan to a match for practice before the school rankings started. Mikan, the dense girl that she is, didn't get that her senpai was only kidding, so she boldly accepted the challenge and lost but managed to score a decent amount of points for someone who just started playing tennis. The city tournament was only about a week away for both the girls and the boys teams.

Now, it was early in the morning and Mikan was already in school, practicing. She panted lightly, bending down and and resting her hands on her knees. Sweat trickled down her face, her eyes focused on the flat, gray wall that she now often practiced at.

"Urgh, I stink," she whined after sniffing herself. It was time for a shower. Again.

"Heh. Someone's been practicing hard."

Mikan turned around slowly and sat herself down on the ground. She saw the figure of her saviour/coach/friend Echizen Ryoma as he walked closer to her from the large mass of trees not so far away. She smiled at him and patted the space on the ground beside her. "Ryoma, ohayou! It's all thanks to you that I can play like this. I _would _hug you like I usually do as a sign of thanks, but I stink," she chuckled.

He chuckled as well and sat next to her. "You do stink," he admitted. _But it doesn't matter. _Daring and bold, especially for Ryoma, he held her in his arms tightly and stood back up once feeling his blush come. He looked down and walked away, too embarrassed to look Mikan in the eye. "Mada mada dane," he said. Her hazel brown eyes lingered on him until he completely disappeared from her sight, leaving her confused along with her cheeks having a warm, tingling feeling.

Unbeknown to both of them, Sakuno had watched the entire scene in silence, jealous, envy, and hurt and left when she couldn't take anymore. She left just when Ryoma had sat himself down to Mikan and didn't see him hug her, but she was very jealous nonetheless. _Mikan wouldn't do that to me, right? _she asked herself. _No, no, Mikan is dense and probably didn't notice that I like Ryoma-ku n. . . She isn't that kind of person, _she kept telling herself, trying to convince herself that Mikan was her friend and friends would never do things to hurt each other . . . Right?

ｘｘｘ

Mikan hummed merrily while going up the stairs to the rooftop, where she met Natsume everyday. Somehow, they've formed a unique yet strange bond of friendship. Though, they never did get past some things and still argued often and whatnot. When she reached the last step, she saw that the door was ajar and stepped onto the rooftop with much zest, bentos in her hands. She's been bringing two lunch boxes for both her and Natsume since she noticed that he wasn't feeding himself properly and got used to it.

"Natsume!" she greeted gaily after shutting the door behind her shut.

Today, he wasn't against the fence watching the other players. Today, he was just sitting down comfortably and lazily under the small shade that they had there. He glanced at her briefly and looked at the few cumulus clouds in the troposphere. "Polka dots."

"Here's your lunch," she huffed and shoved the bento at him impatiently. She stared at him readily, aware of the upcoming argument that they were about to have; it was a daily routine for the two to meet each other on the rooftop, argue, eat, then talk. Surprisingly, the ruby-eyed prince took the bento without a fuss. "Another bento, huh," he said monotonously and opened up the lunch box. "Itadaikimasu."

"You're not going to argue with me today? You know, about how you don't want to die because of my cooking or something?"

He shook his head and continued eating.

Suspicious, she stared at him for a while, trying to figure out what he was up to.

Natsume placed his bento on the floor and put his chopsticks neatly on top of it. "Really bothersome," he murmured and faced the brunette, wearing his infamous poker face yet again. It made one's mind boggle about what he could possibly be thinking despite that emotionless face of his. "It's all because you made me these bentos every single day," he grunted. The brunette was about to protest, but he didn't allow her to and continued: "Now I have to repay you, somehow."

"Oh, it's okay. You don't have to."

"No, I _have _to," he insisted. Natsume wasn't really good at expressing his gratitude and he didn't like to thank others much, so he forced himself to think that he was in debt to the person who did something for him and that he wasn't thankful at all. "I have to repay my debt."

"But you don't owe me anything," she said, a bit confused.

"You made me all these bentos! Now I owe you."

"Ah, no you don't. Just say 'Thank you,' and that's enough," the brunette chirped, but Natsume wouldn't listen. If he says that he is in debt and is not "thankful," then he is.

Silence became the dominant sound heard. He spoke again after a while, "How does a date sound..?" he asked hesitantly.

"A date?"

"Don't get me wrong," he replied immediately, "it's not a real date that we have to be couples and stuff... Just think of it as a way that I'm repaying you, okay?"

"Okay?" she said, unsure of her own answer. "Where are we supposed to go?"

"New York. Paris. Hawaii. Rome. Anywhere. Money isn't a problem since my father _is _one of the owners of a company."

Mikan's eyes widened and sparkled with delight. "Really?"

"Yeah."

She placed her index finger on her bottom lip and looked as if she was deep in thought, unable to make a decision. Her face lit up and she smiled brightly at him once again. "I got it! I want to go to... the zoo."

"Zoo? It would be better off if we went on a safari in Africa, don't you think?"

The brunette shook her head, "I want to go to the one in the city."

"I'm offering to take you out on a date to _anywhere _in the world and you want to go to a zoo, here in Japan." _Is she an idiot?_

"Well, you said anywhere I want and I want to go to the zoo," she replied.

He shrugged. "Okay. Next, next Saturday, since we have the district tournament next week and I need to practice more this week, so I'm going to be busy. Be in front of the zoo by eleven, alright?"

"Okay!"

_Cheerful idiot. It really isn't hard to please her._

"Mou, Natsume-kun," she said again.

"What now?"

"Are you going to pay for everything or do I have to bring money?"

_This girl obviously has had no love interest. Ever. What an idiot, _the prince thought, not bothering to answer her question since he thought it was really stupid and that the answer was obvious. He said "date" earlier, meaning the guy _will _pay, even if the girl refuses. He heard her mutter something about paying herself and finally answered her question. "I'll pay. Aho1. The guy always pays when on a date, or else he's a loser." He pulled at her hair just for the fun of it, and because she made him say the word "date" again, when he didn't want to call their meeting/hanging out time _together, __**alone**__, _as a "date." Hyuuga Natsume doesn't date (yet), especially not idiotic girls like her who makes him irritated so often and who always has a goofy smile no matter what.

"Thank you!" she squealed and threw herself at Natsume, forgiving him for pulling her hair just because she was really happy and because Natsume was being nice to her; she was used to him being mean to her anyway, since that's just how Natsume is. "I guess you're not such a big meanie after all, ne? Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she chanted while hugging him.

"Ah, just let go of me already," he said in the calmest voice he could manage and shoved her away. A faint glow of pink could be seen on his cheeks if one looked closely enough; he himself felt the temperature rise a bit. _This girl must have so much energy that she's giving heat off, _he thought as an excuse. Because Hyuuga Natsume didn't blush over stupid girls like Mikan who used to wear pigtails and got happy because of simple things . . . Right?

ｘｘｘ

"Seigaku! Seigaku!" the students of Seishun Gakuen cheered as the first doubles match went on. Among the cheerers were Tomoka and Sumire, of course, and the rest of the fan girls of the good-looking tennis players. Sakuno was there as well, wearing her own cheering outfit which happened to be the same as the fan girls' outfits since they agreed on it; the other schools would think that they were cheering for different schools if they didn't have the same uniform. Perhaps this was one of the rare times that Sumire and Tomoka actually got along with Mikan and Sakuno. The fan girls, the normal boys tennis team members like Horio and Kachirou, Tomoka, Sumire, Sakuno, Inoue, and several others were there, watching the ongoing tennis matches. While all these people are there, you might be wondering where a certain someone called Sakura Mikan might be.

Mikan was actually watching the matches earlier and cheered beside Sakuno. She left not so long ago to use the bathroom and get some drinks to satisfy the thirst from all the cheering for Seigaku and all. But yet again, she was lost.

"Where is the bathroom?" she wailed, turning her head left and right to see if the bathroom was anywhere near.

She heard the familiar sound of a tennis ball being hit, and that meant that there were people closeby since, well, she wouldn't be able to hear the tennis ball being hit if the person hitting it was far now, would she? She spotted a few tennis courts for practice and ran there, two people visible. The one who was hitting the tennis ball was a guy and had almost shoulder-length blue hair and had a green, pink, and white uniform on while the other was a girl who had brown shoulder length hair with white hairclips on either side of her head, wearing a skirt and a purple shirt.

"Excuse me," Mikan called out.

The girl in front of her turned to see where the source of the voice was coming from. "Yes?"

"Eto... Do you know where the bathroom is? I really need to go," Mikan said and bit her bottom lip. _I don't know how much longer I can hold it innn, _she thought, horror-stricken.

The girl with short brown hair chuckled and got out of the court immediately. "Oh, I can see that it's an emergency. Let's go, hurry," she said. "Shinji, I'll be back in a few," she shouted as she and Mikan walked hastily to the ladies' bathroom.

ｘｘｘ

"Ah, thank you so much," Mikan said, refreshed and relieved right after she walked out of the restroom. It would have been total chaos if it wasn't for this girl right here. "I'm Sakura Mikan; nice to meet you!" she said enthusiastically and offered her right to shake to the onee-san whose name she didn't even know. With a short laugh, the older girl shook Mikan's hand and smiled.

"You're welcome. I'm Tachibana Ann2. We should head back to the courts, ne? Shinji is waiting."

"Is that the blue-haired guy's name? Shinji?"

Ann nodded. "He's a junior at the moment and he's a great tennis player. What school do you go to? Your uniform looks vaguely familiar . . . But I don't think I've seen you before."

"Oh, I go to Seishun Gakuen. You probably never saw me before because I'm a freshman and I just transferred to Seigaku a couple of months ago," Mikan answered, her smiled still bright and friendly. "Ann nee-san, what school do you go to?"

An amused grin was formed on Ann's lips. Her expression changed once again; the expression that seemed sly and mysterious and curious to many. "I go to Fudomine High. Our school is going to be against yours for the next match, the final match. I know that Seigaku isn't done with their matches yet, but they'll win. So far, they have always stayed as the number one seed for these district tournament and the nationals even, but Fudomine is stronger this year. Maybe we'll take down Seigaku this time." The older brunette grinned.

"Fudomine . . . Ne, that guy with you earlier, he's part of the tennis team, right? Is he good?"

"Shinji? Hmmm, why don't you ask him yourself?"

They arrived at the tennis courts and found the blue-haired tennis player named Shinji sitting down lazily. He held his racket sideways, bouncing a ball on it repeatedly, easily hitting the tennis ball over and over with the frame of his racket while holding it sideways.

"Sugoi3! How do you do that?" Mikan asked zealously, appearing before a muttering Shinji in an instant and giving him quite a surprise, causing him to miss the tennis ball.

"Thanks," he said casually and went to pick up the ball. Being the Shinji that he is, he muttered to himself, "I didn't miss that ball. I was just surprised by that girl. It's all her fault."

Mikan giggled and Shinji stared at her strangely. "I'm Sakura Mikan. From Seigaku."

"Ibu Shinji. Fudomine." Again, he mumbled his side comments, not knowing that Mikan could hear most of what he said perfectly, like everyone else heard what he was rambling on about and mumbling to himself most of the time. "Why do I have to introduce myself to her? Seigaku. She's from Seigaku. Where that arrogant rookie goes to."

Calming her excitement and her bouncy nature, she asked him another question without hesitation. "Ibu-san, are you good in tennis? I think you are. I mean, I saw you bounce that ball on just the frame of your racket. The only other person who I've seen do that is Ryoma."

_Ryoma? So she _is _friends with that brat. Heh, the cocky kid. _Shinji felt the competitiveness burn in him immensely. He hadn't forgotten how Ryoma had beaten him all those years ago, even when he was injured: his eyelid was bleeding and even when he was forced to play against Shinji with only one eye opened. And he won. "Really now?" Shinji mused. "I'll show you what a great tennis player I am," he mumbled to himself. Again. He threw his tennis ball into the air and hit it with much power, causing it to spin once it hit the ground and bounce up. His kick serve.

"Ah! Was that the twist serve? You can do it like Ryoma can, too!" Mikan said, amazed and not meaning anything offensive.

Shinji, on the other hand, _did _take it as an offense and gritted his teeth. _Ryoma, Ryoma, Ryoma. _"Stop comparing me to the arrogant brat," he muttered.

Ann, who was watching from outside the court said, "I'm going ahead, okay? Have fun, you guys." She giggled, having a feeling that something, _something, _was going to happen between those two. Whether it was good or bad, she didn't know though.

After a while of showing Mikan a few things, he sat down on the bench beside her to rest. "You're a great tennis player, Ibu-san."

"Thanks. You can call me Shinji." His eyes locked with her soft, brown ones for a second or two; he looked away and put his racket on the free space on the bench. Yet again, he mumbled, "Brown eyes. Why does she have to have such soft, brown eyes for? Such cuteness should not be allowed. And of course I'm a great tennis player. That's why I'm a regular. Yet I keep being compared to that rookie."

"Can I borrow your racket?" the brunette asked out of nowhere.

"I guess," he replied.

She took his racket into her small hands and faced the practice wall. Shinji's racket felt a bit heavier than hers and felt kind of weird to her, probably since she was already used to her own racket. Slowly and steadily, she threw the tennis ball into the air and hit it perfectly. It bounced against the wall and headed back to her; she ran to it and swung the racket to hit it but tripped—on a rock, which happened to be only four millimeters long.

Surprised at her spontaneous fall, he stood up, ready to rush to her help but she sat up and rubbed her forehead saying, "Itai." Seeing that she was perfectly fine, the Fudomine regular found himself laughing at Mikan's clumsiness. A half-smile graced his face, a rare phenomenon: Shinji smiling. He walked to her side and helped her up. He stood behind her and held her wrist with one hand, trying to show her how to improve her skills. "It's like this, see..."

"Mou, I already know that. Ryoma taught me that," she said ignorantly, unintentionally brushing him off.

Annoyed, he took his racket back and exited the court. "Ungrateful little girl. Ryoma this, Ryoma that, Ryoma, Ryoma, Ryoma," he rambled on. He was annoyed that Mikan brushed him off when he kindly offered to help her and he felt somewhat insulted and hurt. But he stopped walking and shut his mouth when he remembered the innocent look on her face. "She didn't mean anything rude. . ?" he asked no one in particular. He continued walking to where his team was supposed to be, feeling guilty more and more as time passed. Even though guilt was manifesting itself rapidly inside him, he didn't turn back to see Mikan and apologize for his sudden outburst. With a displeased frown on his face, he continued walking. "It's her fault for being adorable and stupid. Stupid girl," he muttered guiltily.

* * *

1 aho – stupid  
2 Tachibana Ann – her name is actually spelled "An," but it looks better as "Ann" in English, so that's how I'm writing her name in this fan fiction.  
3 Sugoi – Wow; amazing

* * *

**Author's Note: Yay! Shinji and Ann are introduced. I **_**adore **_**Shinji. Don't you just love it when he makes those side comments and just keeps mumbling to himself? I do! It's funny, too. Well, I hope you liked this chapter. :) & Is this story too slow-plotted for you? Ah, sorry if it is. _ Anywaaay, votes for the poll are the following:**

**Ryoma! : 22 votes: 37%**  
**Natsume! : 32 votes: 56%**  
**Can't decide :/ : 2 votes: 4%  
Neither: 1 vote: 1%**

**Go Ryoma, go! You still have a chance, lol. You guys are too used to reading all these NatsuMikan fics. I'd like to see a YouichiMikan or a TsubasaMikan one. . . Anyway! If anyone wants to change their vote, please let me know. I was wondering if I should add anyone else to like Mikan. . .Hm. . .Maybe Shinji? ;) Any other potential love interests? & A lot of you are asking for Hotaru; she won't appear until the later chapters, maybe chapter 11 and up? I'm not sure. . .**

**To chocolatexpudding: I counted your vote for Ryoma instead of "Can't decide," as you asked. :)**

**Review please! Flames are highly accepted; someone needs to keep me from going over my head. :)**

**Ja,**

**Aimee.**


	8. The Date　デート

ｘ

**Chapter Eight: The Date.**

ｘ

The blue-haired Shinji sat uncomfortably while waiting for his turn to play 2nd singles. His guilt still remained, unable to forget the overly active brunette who he had met a few hours ago.

"Shinji, what's bothering you?" the captain, Tachibana Kippei, asked.

Shinji shook his head in return and mumbled something about a tangerine, leaving the Fudomine captain wondering whether Shinji was nervous about his match or whether he was having any kind of trouble that would hinder him from doing his best during the match.

"Shinji, you're up!" Kamio said, since the poor blue-headed player was too preoccupied in his own thoughts to notice the chair umpire call him to go onto the court for his match. As fate would have it, he was going to play against Echizen Ryoma, just like they did three years ago. This time, Shinji wasn't planning on losing, or at least, he wanted to give a good fight. He walked onto the court, gripping his racket tightly. "Echizen Ryoma. Let's have a good match," he said, pointing his racket at the prince.

"Hmm, make sure you're careful enough not to injure me like last time, ne? That was pretty troublesome," Ryoma taunted.

"Still as arrogant as ever, I see."

"And you're still mumbling to yourself when I can hear you clearly. Mada mada dane."

They both walked to the corners of their own sides of the courts; Shinji was going to serve. He bounced the ball a few times, still not fully concentrating on the match, the bubbly brunette in mind.

Finally, he was ready to serve.

"Shinji!" he heard someone shout out from the massive number of people in the crowd. He looked up and saw the girl who was on his mind, smiling and waving her hands over her head so that he could see her. "Gambatte*!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "And Ryoma, too!"

Shinji smiled and served his improved kick serve. _What an idiotic girl._

It seems that several people have found the one word to describe Mikan as: "idiot."

ｘｘｘ

Ryoma sulked, not wanting to shake Shinji's hand after the match. "Hmph. It's too bad that the ball didn't hit your face," he complained, his voice monotonous. "I was aiming for your face." Of course, Ryoma won, 6-3. But he still felt like he didn't win yet; because of Mikan. Mikan cheered for Shinji, who was on the opposing team from her school, instead of just cheering for him, Ryoma. He denied the part of him that insisted that he was being jealous while Shinji rambled on about he could have won if this and that hadn't happened.

Reluctantly, Ryoma walked back to his team, frowning even though he won.

_That girl is an idiot. Cheering for that guy when she's supposed to be cheering for me. I wonder why I even like her..._

ｘｘｘ

All the matches for the district tournament were over; Seigaku won first place, as expected. They have stayed as the first seed of the district tournament there. It was time to leave and Mikan was wandering around the area again, two drinks in her hands. She was on her way back to where the Seigaku members were, and she bumped into Shinji.

"Sakura-san," he said faintly, afraid to look her in the eye. He felt bad for storming off on her earlier yet she was still nice and even cheered him on during his match with Ryoma.

"Shinji! Hi," she smiled. "Do you want one?" She held out one of the drinks in her hands to him, offering it and he gladly took it. "And it's Mikan. M-I-K-A-N." She sighed. _Why do I have to correct everyone on what to call me?_

"Are you sure I can have this?"

The brunette nodded, her head bobbing up and down and her half-ponytail shaking off a bit, more than it already had because of all the moving around that she did. "One was supposed to be Ryoma's, but you can have that one."

The blue-haired Fudomine student smirked. _I'll take more delight in drinking this because you gave it to me and because you gave it to me instead of that brat. _"Arigatou. Anyway. . ." His voice trailed off. "I'm sorry for getting mad at you all of a sudden and for being kind of rude to you." He blushed; Ibu Shinji wasn't used to being embarrassed. He was used to wearing his poker face and mumbling his thoughts to himself.

"It's okay. I don't mind at all. You did great during your game, by the way."

"It was a loss."

"But still a good game," Mikan defended.

"I suppose so," he muttered.

"Well, I have to go now. Ryoma is probably waiting for his drink. I'll see you again sometime, and I'll be rooting for you in the Metropolitan Tournament and on, too!"

Confused, Shinji arched a brow at her. "I thought you said. . ."

"I said that one of the drinks is Ryoma's. The one I gave I you was supposed to be mine," she explained. "Ryoma _is _my tennis teacher, kind of. See you again, Shinji-kun," she smiled once again and left.

His blue eyes watched her go in the opposite direction from him, her already petite figure getting smaller and smaller as she went further into the distance.

"If it was your drink, then that makes it even better."

ｘｘｘ

"What took you so long?"

"Nothing, nothing. Here's your drink, Ryoma," she chirped and handed the younger one of the two princes his can of Ponta. Natsume, who was there along with Ryoma and the other players, felt neglected. He wanted a drink, too. Just because Ryoma played and he didn't did not mean that he didn't deserve a drink.

The older prince walked to the brunette casually and tugged on her hair. "Oi, where's my drink?" he 'asked,' though Mikan was pretty sure that he was demanding rather than asking.

"Natsume-sama! I have one for you," Sumire gushed.

The other fan girls started yelling and offering him drinks. All it took was one glare for him to get them all to shut up and get their hearts broken for the billionth time. Turning back to Mikan, he 'asked' for his drink again.

"I don't have one for you," Mikan said, freeing herself from Natsume's cruelty of tugging on her hair. She stepped away quickly and hid behind Ryoma for safety, sticking her tongue at Natsume. Ryoma watched her childish attitude in amusement and chuckled. He looked at Natsume, a smirk playing on his lips.

Tomoka didn't like this at all. Neither did Sakuno and several others, wishing they could be that close to Ryoma (and Natsume) without being treated coldly.

"Let's go," Tezuka ordered, his voice loud and powerful that one felt obliged to listen to him. _You are all such kids._

"Hai," the two princes answered and followed their well-respected captain.

ｘｘｘ

Finally, _that _Saturday came. It was time for Natsume and Mikan's date. The raven-haired tennis prodigy leaned against the stone post near the gates of the zoo, waiting. His hair was messy, like always, and he wore a black polo shirt with dark blue jeans and Converse to match his jet black hair. A leather jacket was folded and draped on his arm since it was getting colder and colder as winter approached, especially at nighttime. He turned his head to the left, then to the right, surveying the crowd to see if she was there yet. He sighed. _Mattaku*__. I did not come early for her, _he told himself. _I only came early because I'm punctual; it's not that I don't want to be late for her. It's not like I _want _to see her right away. It's not like I care whether she gets mad if I'm late or whether she'll be lonely waiting here by herself if I was late._

Moments later, he heard her call him: "Natsume!" There was no mistaking it: the annoying, cheery, and screeching voice that somehow managed to soothe him and irritate him at the same time belonged to her. His head snapped up, and within seconds, a panting brunette stood before him.

"Hi," she said and faced him properly. She smiled toothily, her teeth perfectly white and straight. Taken aback, he looked elsewhere so that his reaction wouldn't seem so obvious. And just what would he react to, you ask? Mikan's appearance.

Her luminous, glossy, brown hair fell fully down a few inches below her shoulders. Her smooth, porcelain legs and arms exposed from the frilly white skirt and brown tank top that she wore: she also seemed taller by an inch because of her low-heeled, brown sandals. On her arm hung a denim jean jacket and a small, white purse on the other arm.

"Are you an idiot?" he finally managed to say. "It's in the middle of October and you're wearing _that_?"

"Yup. The season is still wonderful. Besides, it's warm and sunny today so I'm fine."

"And the heels? They're not that high, but you _do _know that we're going to be walking around a lot, right? You were the one who picked to come here." _Idiot._

Mikan pouted. "Mou, can we just go already? I look adorable anyway so it's forgivable right?" she teased and giggled, bringing herself closer to Natsume.

"Whatever. Let's go." He felt the temperature rise suddenly (specifically on his cheeks)._ I guess that we're having weird weather fluctuations at the moment, which would explain why it gets hot all of a sudden like that. . ._

"By the way, you look cool, Natsume-kun."

"I know. You look . . . ugly, as always," he chuckled.

"Aaaw, come on, you have to admit that I don't look that bad. See, I even put my hair down, and Ryoma says I look better with my hair down," she said. She stood in front of him and stared at the prince with puppy eyes. He stared back at her and feigned to think hard on his decision. "I don't see a difference."

Mikan charged toward him, ready to attack him and make him acknowledge that she _at least _looked decent. "You can say that I at least look better than usual! ...Please."

The teenage male smirked inwardly. "Hmmm, I guess you look _somewhat _better and less like a pig."

Her big, brown eyes brightened in sweet delight and sparkled with joy, seeming as if they could even twinkle as bright as the stars at night. "Thank you," she said sweetly. "Now, let's go see the pandas!"

Sakura Mikan wanted to see pandas. The black and white bamboo-eaters that were cute and fluffy and almost perfectly round. But Hyuuga Natsume had other things in mind. _He _wanted something else; he wanted to take Mikan to frightful animals and scare her to see how she would react. Courtesy of him, the two _probably _weren't going to see the pandas until much, much later on. The first place that they had gone to was the area with birds.

**At the Area of the Bird Exhibit...**

"Natsume-kun how come all these birds are so . . . huge. And scary. And really fierce-looking?"

"Because they are."

She looked around the place with uneasiness and walked beside Natsume as close as she could.

The ruby-eyed prince chuckled. "Did you know vultures like those ones over there can eat human flesh? They would very much eat human flesh if a person was dead and just lying around somewhere, you know," he informed her, certain that the information would creep her out: and it did. It sent chills down her spine; she gulped and continued to walk very, very close to Natsume, as if he would serve as some sort of protection from the potentially harmful animals.

**At the Area of the Bug Exhibit...**

The next place that Natsume brought Mikan to was the part of zoo that had bugs and insects of all shapes and sizes and colors on exhibit. Of course, the only reason why he brought her there of all places was because he wanted to scare Mikan more than she already was.

But much to his dismay, Mikan was actually a bit relieved to be there than at the place with the enormous condors and vultures and whatnot. Mikan wasn't the least bit afraid of bugs.

"You're not scared?" he asked.

She shook her head and smiled. "Nope."

He grunted in dissatisfaction while she ran to a bunch of butterflies of all the colors of the rainbow, admiring them. She looked at the various types of beetles and read facts about them and often commented on whatever she could. Natsume, who was just following her around, dragged her out of the place and went off to the next place when he couldn't take it anymore. Of course, the next place that they were headed to was also courtesy of Natsume; and that means that nothing good is about to happen if your name is Sakura Mikan.

**At a Place So Dreaded to Sakura Mikan...**

"Natsume-kun, are you sure we should go there? I mean, we could just skip this place and go somewhere else, you know? There are a lot more places to visit than this damp, dark cave place," she laughed nervously, trying to think of a good excuse that would convince Natsume to go elsewhere with her rather than to stay at that cave.

"We're going in there," he stated flatly. A smirk became visible on his lips. "Don't tell me that you're scared, polka dots," he provoked.

"O-Of course not! I'm not scared at all," Mikan retorted defiantly, even though she was very well aware that she _was _afraid and that she did _not _want to go into the cave. Even her body was telling the entire world that she was scared; her legs trembled and the hair on the nape of her neck stood up and her teeth chattered a bit. Bravely, she marched into the mouth of the cave, Natsume trailing behind her, waiting to see what she would do. She stopped in her tracks and gulped.

"Well?"

"Nothing, nothing," she said and continued on inside, the light from outside lessening and becoming more and more faint as they ventured deeper into the cave.

Natsume turned on a flashlight and walked beside Mikan. He flashed it around and observed the area. _They did a pretty good job with this fake cave. I wonder how much it cost them. . ._

A drop of water fell from the cave ceiling, echoing in the silence of the cave and causing Mikan to jump. She quickly clung onto Natsume's arm and hugged it tightly, her eyes shut closed. She jumped at every other subtle noise heard in the midst of the darkness and quietness, her body shaking with fright even more. Each time, she held onto Natsume's arm tighter; he found strange pleasure in her company and her closeness and seeing her different reactions as well.

They went to see several other animals like giraffes, hippos, chipmunks, monkeys (Natsume even told Mikan that she might be related to the monkeys); of course, they also ate lunch together. Inevitable as it was, the two argued with each other, like always, and they both blushed when someone said that they were a cute couple. They didn't notice how fast time passed: it was already late in the afternoon yet they still didn't go see the pandas.

In fact, it was only now that they were headed toward the pandas.

"They look so cute!" Mikan squealed when they arrived to the pandas' cage.

"Be quiet. You're going to wake them."

The brunette quickly covered her mouth. "Oops. They look really cute though, don't you think so, Natsume-kun?"

"Sure."

"It's too bad that they're already asleep. Oh, well." She turned to her date and smiled, a dimple on her right cheek appearing. "Thanks for today, Natsume-kun. I had fun, really." She skipped to his side and continued smiling even though he didn't reply. "Let's go home now. It's getting dark."

"Hn."

Mikan put out her leg and flinched once she took a step on the ground. She stopped; Natsume looked back at her to see what happened.

"I'm okay," she said and smiled again. She took another step and stopped. "Itai. . ." She stopped and kicked off her sandal; the heel of her foot was red and aching, probably because she was wearing heels and they walked around all day long. Her other foot was most likely the same as this one.

"Baka,*" the raven-haired prince muttered. Mikan was about to talk back to him, but she didn't and was surprised by what he did: he lifted her onto his back and picked up her sandals for her. "Is that better?"

Mikan felt her cheeks become hot. "Y-Yeah," she answered quietly.

"You're really troublesome, you know."

"Sorry," Mikan said softly, still blushing.

Natsume shook his head, his ebony locks moving around messily.

"Thank you for the date. I really enjoyed today."

Natsume stayed quiet and continued to walk, carrying Mikan on his back. "Me, too. It was . . . unique," he finally said. The brunette on his back smiled and rested her head on his shoulder, enjoying the rest of the time she had left with him.

ｘｘｘ

Mikan inhaled the scent of Natsume's cologne, his leather jacket draped on her shoulders, keeping her warm. She remembered how sweet he had been earlier, though he might not have noticed it himself.

_"My feet feel fine now," she told him and stood up on her own two feet. "Sorry for the bother."_

_"You're heavy," he said, ignoring what she said._

_The brunette shivered and hugged herself. It was getting colder; she thought about how it really _was _a bad idea to wear what she wore that day; the denim jacket that she brought wasn't enough to keep her warm and the fact that she was wearing a skirt and sandals didn't help either. She felt something warm and heavy thrown to her head: it was Natsume's jacket. _

_"Take it. I don't need it; it's fine if I'm cold. Just give it back to me whenever you can. Ja_,*_" he said and walked toward a different direction from Mikan. He was going to head home as well._

_"Thank you!" she yelled out loudly, making sure that he heard her even though he was already quite far from her. Natsume isn't a bad person after all . . . Not at all, she thought, smiling and happily putting on his jacket to keep herself warm._

Mikan went through the gates that led to the place she called "home." Rummaging through her small purse, she took out her house keys and shoved each one into their respective locks. She entered her house and neatly put away her shoes. "I'm home," she said quietly.

She turned on the lights in the living room and tossed her bag onto one of the sofas.

"Where have you been?" the brusque voice of a woman asked.

Mikan froze on spot and slowly turned to the source of the voice. "Okaa-san. . .*"

"Answer me, dammit!" she yelled, throwing an object nearby her to her child. The young brunette winced in pain and bit her bottom lip in order to stay quiet. "Forget it," Yuka said. "You can't even do anything! My God. Such a troublesome little wretch," she said, her voice full of venom. Her mother shook her head in disappointment and left Mikan.

"Okaa-san," Mikan whispered sadly. A teardrop fell down her cheek and onto the floor. Another tear came. And another. And another. Hurt more emotionally rather than physically, Mikan curled up on the sofa and cried silently. The day that she thought was one of the best days in her life turned into one of the most depressing ones.

ｘｘｘ

*Gambatte – Do your best; good luck  
*Mattaku – Sheesh  
*Baka – stupid  
*Ja – (See you) later  
*Okaa-san – mother

* * *

**Author's Note: And there is chapter eight. Finally, I know. I hope you guys liked it! It's the longest chapter yet, and I hope that it didn't bore you guys. It was supposed to be longer, but I cut it since I wasn't sure whether you guys liked reading longer chapters or what. . . Thank you, thank you, thank you all for the reviews; I love them all :) I'm taking my AP Literature and Composition exam tomorrow so I'm sleeping soon. And now, it is time for the poll results once again. . . ((drum roll))**

**Ryoma! : 27 votes: 41%**  
**Natsume! : 36 votes: 55%**  
**Can't decide :/ : 2 votes: 3%  
Neither: 1 vote: 1%**

**If you haven't voted yet then vote already! Be careful about which option you choose though ;D I'm wondering who put "Neither" as their vote and why. . .Hm. . .**

**Review please! Flames are highly accepted; someone needs to keep me from going over my head. :)**

**I'll update again soon. :)**

**Ja,**

**Aimee.**


	9. Another Typical School Day ?

ｘ

**Chapter Nine: Another Typical School Day . . ?**

ｘ

Sakuno exited the book store, hugging a book on how to improve her tennis skills against her chest. She hated it: she hated the fact that she's been ignored by Ryoma for so long. She tried her best but it wasn't good enough. What she needed was to push herself; maybe she only needed to try just a bit harder and Ryoma would finally notice her. A heavy feeling grew inside her chest. She wondered what that feeling was, and why it felt so painful at times.

A sad expression was on her face. Passing by speeding vehicles and several stores of all kinds of goods, she stopped in her tracks at something very unusual. Surprised at what she saw, she rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't imagining things. Once she finished rubbing her eyes and blinked several times, _they _were still there. _They _were really together. _Hyuuga Natsume and Mikan-chan?_

The heavy feeling in her in her chest lightened; she smiled. Letting out a sigh of relief, she continued on her way home. From her point of view, Mikan liked Natsume, which meant that she could keep Ryoma all to herself with no worries at all. It would be very undesired and troublesome for her if Mikan was one of her rivals for Ryoma. She had enough competition as it is. But then again, Mikan was Mikan, and Mikan is dense and always puts the people who she loves most before her.

ｘｘｘ

Sakura Mikan sighed as she exited the main office. Looking at the newly printed schedule in her hands, she sighed once again. Her schedule was changed to provide her with classes that would best suit her since she had been getting exceptionally lower grades since she joined the tennis team. Teachers requested for her to have a schedule change to be adjusted with her classes and club activities, which meant that Mikan would have classes with other students and that she would have little or no classes with her dear friend Sakuno.

About ten minutes were left until first period, homeroom, was going to end. Mikan entered her new homeroom classroom and showed the teacher her new schedule. To be honest, she was actually somewhat surprised when she saw that there was a teacher for homeroom since she was used to not having a teacher for homeroom; he was always absent. She was assigned a seat next to a boy with blond, curly hair and glasses.

He smiled at her, and Mikan smiled back.

_I think I've just made my first new friend here._

ｘｘｘ

The rest of Mikan's classes weren't exactly the best either. In her second, third, and fifth classes, Mikan had both Tomoka and Sumire as her classmates. Some members of the Bishounen* Club were there too, and they didn't like Mikan any better than Tomoka and Sumire did, so, naturally, she wasn't welcome.

It was still fifth period, and the brunette couldn't wait to get out of the classroom already.

A crumpled up paper ball was thrown to her head and bounced onto the floor when the teacher turned around. The one that hit her just now was probably the seventeenth paper ball thrown at her. She picked up the paper ball and opened it; it read, "Get lost! You're unwanted here!" Beside that nice little note was a small sketch of what was supposed to be Mikan with x's as her eyes.

Not to mention the number of times she was tripped. Maybe three or four times. And as we all know, Mikan is a total klutz, so she fell flat on her face half the times that she was tripped.

_RINGGG._

_Finally! _she thought and packed her things quickly. She sped to the door and went to the staircase leading to the rooftop. At last, it was lunch time, the time when she meets Natsume on school days.

Light poured out from the door which was ajar, warm and welcoming.

"Natsume!"

Today, he wasn't clinging to the wired fence, watching the tennis team practice like he usually did. Today, he was sitting quietly in the shade, seeming like he was waiting for her. But she couldn't assume that he was waiting for someone, let alone her. He _was _Hyuuga Natsume. Hyuuga Natsume didn't wait for people, especially those who probably meant nothing to him at all . . . did he?

He stayed silent, knowing she would resume talking in a matter of seconds.

After catching her breath from rushing up the stairs and running to get to the rooftop, she plopped herself beside Natsume and handed him his bentou. "I got my schedule changed," she said glumly and sighed. "And the worst part is that in almost all the classes that I have so far, Tomoka and Sumire are there!"

"And they are?" He was uninterested in who those people really were, but he knew that it would make Mikan feel better if he let her explain to him who they were and what happened and why it was so horrible to be in the same classes as them. He mused at the fact of how he was getting to know Mikan more and more despite that it wasn't one of his goals to begin with. His initial goal was to beat Ryoma to her, but it couldn't hurt to really get to know the brunette.

Opening his bentou, he said his thanks and began eating, also wondering whether he'll have to repay Mikan again for the all the bentous that she's been giving him since he only took her out on a date once. _It won't be so bad to take her out on another date though. I wouldn't mind; it wasn't as horrible as I thought. _

"Tomoka and Sumire are your biggest fan girls! They're horrible," the brunette whined, interrupting his thoughts. "They like to bully and make fun of people a lot and they made fun of me because of my pigtails! Can you believe it?"

"Those pigtails _were _pretty ugly," he teased.

"Fine. But they're gone now, see?" She stuffed some food into her mouth. "The point is, having the two presidents of the Bishounen Club along with the rest of those drones of fan girls in my classes isn't exactly the best thing ever," the muffled sound came from her mouth, filled with food.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." The older prince had to force himself to keep himself from laughing. She looked too ridiculous yet somewhat adorable at the same time. _Did I just think that, that idiot looked adorable? Impossible._

"They're just so mean! I get it that they don't like me, but I don't know why they're being _this _mean to me! It's too much, even for them!"

"That's just how people are. It's life. Deal with it, polka dots."

"For the last time, my name is MIKAN! And hey! How did you know that I wore polka dotted underwear? I thought that you only saw the strawberries one before . . . Pervert!"

Natsume couldn't help but let out a brief laugh. "Baka. You only noticed now? I've been calling you that for a while now."

Instead of being angry, the brunette stared at Natsume in disbelief. "Natsume . . . You just . . . laughed."

"So? What, you've never seen a person laugh before?" he arched an eyebrow at her, wearing his mask of composure and calmness again.

"I have, but I've never seen you laugh before."

"I didn't laugh."

"You did! You just said so!"

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did!"

"No."

"Yes!"

"I did _not._ You were hearing things."

"But— Oh, forget it," Mikan scowled in defeat.

The teenage male got up and dusted his pants. "The bell is going to ring soon and lunch period is going to be over. Better get to class now. See you tomorrow or something."

Mikan sighed and got up to leave after Natsume. _Kami-sama_*_, please don't let me have any more classes with Tomoka and Sumire and all those fan girls, _she prayed, thought a feeling in her gut told her not to be too hopeful.

Another heavy sigh escaped her lips as she walked to her seventh period class. She walked slowly and cautiously, fingers crossed for good luck as she neared her seventh period class's room. "Please no more evil fan girls, please no more evil fan girls," she chanted quietly. Bracing herself for whatever was going to happen, the brunette opened the door to her seventh period class, music and art.

Mikan surveyed the room for the teacher, but he was nowhere to be seen. She checked her schedule again; the name of the teacher was Anjou N. Again, she looked around the room, but no teacher was to be found; no evil fan girls were in sight either, much to her relief. _Kami-sama is merciful._

"Saku— Mikan? What are you doing here?"

Mikan looked to see who called her. It was the prince of tennis, Echizen Ryoma. Beside him sat the other prince of tennis, Hyuuga Natsume.

"Ryoma? Natsume-kun?"

"Heh. I guess your new seventh period class is with us," the raven-haired prince said, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"I guess so," she replied blankly.

A blonde teacher entered, wearing rather strange clothes: he was wearing clothes that were most likely from Shakespeare's era, a skull in one hand and a feather on his oddly shaped hat. He was an attractive teacher, but he made Mikan wonder why he seemed so feminine and possibly even homosexual. She stared at him with much focus; he looked familiar to her, but she didn't remember where she had seen him before.

Suddenly, it dawned her. "Ah! You're my former home room teacher! You were always absent that I almost didn't recognize you."

Just noticing the brunette, the purple-eyed teacher smiled. "Are you my new student? May I see your schedule please?" Mikan showed him her neatly folded paper instantly. "Oh."

"Strawberries, you shouldn't get that close to that perverted, child molester of a teacher," Natsume warned, his voice still monotonous and cold as ever.

"I agree," Ryoma piped in.

"That wasn't very nice, you two. But since it seems that you three know each other, it would be easier for you three to be together, ne?" Narumi looked at the two princes, then at Mikan, then back at the two. "Great! Ryoma, move to the seat next to you; next to the window. Mikan-chan, you can go sit in between the two in the back."

"Okay." A friendly smile on her lips, Mikan sat in between Ryoma and Natsume, happy to be with her two friends. She enjoyed both their companies and really was glad that she had a class with them instead of the evil members of the Bishonen Club. _Maybe my schedule change isn't so bad after all._

Natsume smirked and looked at Ryoma, his red, ruby eyes burning with intense competitiveness once again while Ryoma stared at Mikan's calves and feets as she swung them back and forth, while she stared at the white board and the teacher in the front of the room.

"Take out _Hamlet,_" Narumi instructed. "Act III Scene i, when Hamlet says his famous monologue: 'To Be or Not to Be'."

"Narumi-sensei, I need a book."

"I don't have any extra copies, so you can share with either Natsume-kun or Ryoma-kun."

"Here." Natsume handed the brunette his book, beating Ryoma to it. "I already memorized that part anyway."

"Thank you," Mikan said sweetly. _Natsume really is a nice person underneath his outer appearance . . . Not to mention really, _really _good-looking, too. _

Ryoma, on the other hand, formed his lips into a thin line and mumbled something inaudible. _I wanted to share mine with the idiot. _

ｘｘｘ

It was the end of the day again, the darkness of the night sky slowly making itself visible. Tennis practice for the girls tennis team was just about to end. During most of the time, Mikan whined to Sakuno about how the evil fan girls were in her second, third, fifth, and eighth period classes and how awful it was. Sakuno sympathized with her friend and offered her Howalons, her favorite sweets, for comfort.

The tennis members left little by little; Mikan stayed on the courts to practice her swings a bit more.

"Mikan, that guy has been watching you for a while now. Do you know him?" the captain asked, suspicious of the guy and concerned about her kouhai's safety. She jerked her head in the direction where the "suspicious man" was and told Mikan to be careful and left.

The tangerine girl squinted at the masculine figure and walked closer. "Shinji?"

"Yo."

"Hi! What are you doing here? It's been a while since I last saw you."

The Fudomine student shrugged. "I was just passing by and decided to, you know. . ." His voice trailed off. Changing the subject and averting it from him, he said, "Anyway, your tennis isn't bad at all; it's actually pretty good." Then followed his infamous mumbling: "I bet it's because _that brat _is your coach."

"I have to go change my clothes before I head home, so. . ."

"I'll wait for you by the gates. Can I walk you home?"

"Sure! I won't take long, so don't worry about that."

Mikan went to the girls locker room while Shinji waited at the school gates for her. "This is ridiculous. Why am I even here at Seigaku? I have no reason to be here," he mumbled to himself. He sighed, scolding himself mentally.

"Oh, is that Ibu Shinji I see?" came Momoshiro's loud, energetic, and jocular voice.

"Hmm, what are you doing here?" Ryoma questioned, standing beside Momo. Both of them had just finished their tennis practice and were heading home or to get food together, like they usually did.

"N-Nothing," Shinji replied, getting a bit nervous for some reason. He was trying to keep his voice calm and composed. _Maybe I _should _leave. . ._

"Shinji! I didn't take long, did I?" Mikan half-yelled and ran to the gates. "Oh, Ryoma and eto*. . .You're here, too," she said, referring to Momoshiro Takeshi as "you" since she didn't really know him. All she knew was that he was an amazing tennis player who used power.

"Momoshiro Takeshi. You can call me Momo-chan-senpai."

"I'm Sakura Mikan."

"So I've heard."

Ryoma narrowed his eyes at Shinji. "What did you say you were doing here again?"

Answering for the blue-haired Fudomine tennis player, Mikan said, "He was watching me play tennis and was waiting for me so that he can walk me home." She smiled her sunny smile, oblivious to the tense situation that hung in the air.

Momo stifled a laugh. _She really is as dense as Ryoma says._

The prince of tennis was _not _very happy that his "tennis stepping stone" was trying to become his rival for Mikan. Not happy at all.

"We'll be going now. See you tomorrow, Ryoma! And it was nice meeting you, Momo-chan-senpai!" Mikan led the way as Shinji walked a bit behind her. He took one last glance at Ryoma's priceless face and snickered.

"Stupid Fudomine bastard," Ryoma cursed. "Stepping stones should remain as stepping stones. I'll turn him into a stepping stone on my way to Mikan, just like how I made him into a stepping stone in tennis on my way to the top."

He couldn't hold it in anymore; Momoshiro Takeshi burst out laughing within seconds.

"Shut up, senpai."

"Warui*," Momo said, trying to control himself. "It's just hilarious how you get jealous. So even you have a cute side! It's priceless," he said and burst out laughing again.

Ryoma frowned. He did _not _like being made fun of, along with many other things, like how he didn't like Ibu Shinji right now and how he didn't like playing again Inui Sadaharu and his Data Tennis.

The spiky-haired Momo slapped Ryoma on the back roughly, though meant it playfully, causing the prince to stumble a few steps forward. "I'll help you with Mikan. Not now, but soon. Really soon. I'm rooting for you, you cocky brat."

"Whatever." _I have plans of my own anyway. . . I think. . ._

For the rest of the week, Mikan came to the classes where the "evil fan girls" were, fully armed and prepared: she readied herself for their attacks. Fortunately, she came out of those classes alive and on some days, the fan girls were less bitchy that usual. Mikan wondered why they hated her so much. She couldn't think of what she could have done wrong to them; she still didn't know that they were jealous of her because of her closeness with Ryoma and Natsume and whoever else there was.

Natsume often made fun of Mikan's sorry state when she came to the rooftop, but she didn't mind as long as he listened to her. Besides, she knew that that was how Natsume was and she really enjoyed his company nonetheless. At times she even found herself _wanting, searching _for his company.

The arts and music class was pretty much a normal class except when to two princes were bored and bothered and teased and made fun of Mikan—which was often; in fact, it was almost everyday. Narumi really did make the brunette think that he was gay at times but proved he wasn't in one way or another. According to her, "Narumi-sensei just likes to dress up a lot—even if it's girl clothes—and is a really bouncy teacher."

ｘｘｘ

It was Saturday again and Mikan was ready to leave. She stood in front of the black metal gates of her house, waiting for Ryoma. Yesterday, they were walking home together since they got out of school at the same time, and she just realized that Ryoma knew where she lived but she didn't know where he lived, which she said "wasn't very fair." They lived in the same neighborhood, so his house couldn't have been too far from hers.

_"Ne, Ryoma, can I come over your house sometime? I mean, I'm just curious and I would like to see where you live, but if you don't want to, then that's fine with me, too."_

_"It's fine."_

_"Eh?"_

_"I said it's fine. You can come over."_

_Her eyes widened, as did her smile. "Really?"_

_"Yeah."_

_"Yay! So when do I come over?"_

_"Tomorrow."_

_"Really?"_

_"Yes, really." Ryoma fought the urge to chuckle. He wondered how one could be so happy and excited about petty things such as going over to another person's house. He also wondered whether the reason why Mikan kept asking 'Really?' was because what he said was unbelievable or not._

_"Yay!" she shrieked with joy and hugged him briefly again._

_He blushed and looked away. "I'll pick you up tomorrow. How does eleven in the morning sound to you?"_

_"Great. See you tomorrow then."_

While Mikan thought about what happened yesterday, she couldn't help but giggle and wonder what Ryoma's house would be like. The weirdest things popped into her mind, such as if Ryoma was more of a house, motherly type of person or something.

"Oi. Let's go," Ryoma said upon arriving at her house.

"Ryoma! You look. . . Amazing, as always," she commented.

He felt like slapping himself to stop the sudden rush of blood to his cheeks. "You look. . . 'Nice,' too," he said, noticing that her hair was let down, just like how he liked it. "We should get going. You ready?"

Mikan nodded and skipped to his side. "Let's go!"

ｘｘｘ

* Bishounen – good-looking boy(s)  
* Kami-sama – God  
* Eto - um  
* Warui - sorry (the literal meaning of warui is "bad," but in this case it is "sorry")

* * *

**Author's Note: Chapter nine is up! I wanted to make it longer but I have to sleep now, so I guess I'll just write what I cut off her in the next chapter ;) Please excuse my spelling errors; I'll correct them when I re-read the chapter and have time. It wasn't much but hopefully you guys liked this chapter nonetheless. :) & I am tempted to write another story when I have a billion others that I need to update! Someone stop me x_x Thank you for all the reviews! Keep them coming. :P The poll results are:**

**Ryoma! : 29 votes: 41%**  
**Natsume! : 38 votes: 54%**  
**Can't decide :/ : 2 votes: 3%  
Neither: 1 vote: 1%**

**I made a new poll, so vote if you wanted to change your vote! I also added two other choices. Again, I WILL ONLY COUNT VOTES THAT ARE IN THE POLL; IF YOU TELL ME YOUR VOTE VIA PM OR ON YOUR REVIEW, IT WILL NOT BE COUNTED! So go vote!**

**I'll update again soon. :)**

**Review please. Flames are highly accepted. :]**

**Ja,**

**Aimee.**


	10. In Love?

**Author's Note: The school year in Japan start in April, like how it starts in September in the U.S. and how it starts in June in the Philippines.**

ｘ

**Chapter Ten: In Love . . ?**

ｘ

"You live in a temple?"

"It used to belong to a monk and somehow ended up belonging to us. I don't really know how though."

The image of the Echizen household was reflected in the brunette's darting brown eyes, fully taking in the view before her. The large, old, brass bell that hung near the temple was firm and immediately caught one's eye, trees slowly losing leaves one by one and withering due to the nearing winter, the clear blue sky with a flock of birds flying south for warmer temperature. Intriguing things were to be seen all around, but what she was interested in the most was the tennis court that was close to the old bell. "You have your own tennis court, too! Sugoi! But then again, it isn't really surprising since Ryoma _does _love tennis."

_She looks like a little kid who's just been given a new toy or something. My house isn't amazing. _"That tennis court is where I lose everyday."

"Lose? Ryoma? In tennis?" The brunette tilted her head to the side, as if those three words—lose, tennis, and Ryoma—were forbidden to be said in one sentence, unless it was 'Ryoma would never lose in tennis.' She tried to picture him losing, but the image just wouldn't allow itself to be projected in her mind.

"That's right, that arrogant kid loses to me. Everyday. _Every single day._" A man in a black robe which was lazily put on appeared out of nowhere. His beard was a bit bushy and his eyes were somewhat feline-like, almost like Ryoma's. They were honey-colored, just like the prince's eyes, and they too, showed the same burning passion once tennis was mentioned. "Would you like to have the honor of seeing Ryoma lose right now?"

"B-But . . . How can he lose to you? I mean, he's the prince of tennis and you're . . old."

The man was actually in his forties or early fifties at most, which wasn't that old at all, but to Mikan, he was old. He pressed his lips together into a thin line while Ryoma laughed mockingly. "That's right, you're old. Old, old, old."

"You brat! You want to have a match right now?"

"Pass." The male teenager wasn't planning on losing a tennis match in front of the girl he liked. Who in the world was stupid enough to do such a thing? Unless, it was their real intention to lose and humiliate themselves purposely in front of a girl, which wasn't probable. No male had such low pride to do that. If they did, others of the male species wouldn't even consider calling them male at all. That, and it was just plain suicide.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" the mezzo soprano voice asked.

"I used to be known as "Samurai Nanjiroh" in the tennis world, but now I'm just plain Echizen Nanjiroh. I'm that kid's dad."

"Eh?"

"Eh?" Nanjiroh echoed, inquiring why she would react in such a way.

Having had a feeling that the brunette would act the way she did, the prince merely chuckled. "Surprising, isn't it?"

_They _do _have the same eyes . . . Except, Ryoma's is more intense, better, more mesmerizing . . . I guess it isn't that surprising . . . _She curtsied politely in front of the slowly aging man and introduced herself. "My name is Sakura Mikan. It's a pleasure to meet you." Her warm smile graced her countenance, her bright, sunny smile which could probably melt one's coldness away.

"Nice to meet you too, young lady. I was actually surprised that Ryoma invited a girl over! The only people who he brings here are his tennis buddies. Loud, hormone-controlled teenagers. It's nice to see someone cute and feminine once in a while," he mused, observing the girl's appearance. "Anywho, you're this kid's girlfriend, right? Welcome to the family!" With his long, adult arms, he caught both teenagers and pulled them into a group hug.

"G-Girlfriend?" Mikan stammered. Both she and Ryoma blushed several shades of red and answered in unison, both flustered: "No!"

"No?" A disappointed sigh emerged from the former tennis samurai. "And here I was, thinking I would finally have a cute daughter-in-law to play with." He walked away nimbly, saying something about grandchildren and babies and marriage and Ryoma being a stubborn idiot of a son.

"Sorry about that."

She shook her head, her loose hair following the same motion. "It's okay. I guess that's just how dads are, ne?" Again, she smiled, but this time, it was a sad smile. Yukihara Izumi wasn't around long enough for her to know him, for her to remember him not as a father but even a person alone, and for her to even miss him. At times she would curse him inside her head for not even staying long enough so that she could build precious memories with him, even if they were little. But when her anger subsided, she would apologize to the one who she was supposed to call father, the one who she had never known, and promised to be patient to meet him someday, in another place.

Not wanting her dear friend/coach/savior to get worried, she broke the brief silence that she herself created. "It must look wonderful here during springtime, with the cherry blossom trees in full bloom. Imagine playing tennis in the midst of falling pink cherry blossom petals."

"It _is _a sight during spring," Ryoma admitted.

They then entered the house of old Japanese style. The style of the house was, indeed, old, but it was sturdy and well-built. The floors were wiped clean and everything was dusted and spotless. Though it was old, it was finely refurbished and had modern and western furniture and electronics.

A white, chubby cat with blue eyes and a gray circle centered on its face rubbed its body against Mikan, occasionally letting out soft purrs of delight.

Mikan picked up the cat and patted it gently. "Kawaii! Is it yours, Ryoma?"

"Ah. His name is Karupin."

"Nice to meet you, Karupin," said the brunette, placing Karupin back on the floor and shaking one of his paws. "I never knew you had a cat."

"You don't know a lot of things about me," Ryoma replied stoically, almost cold even. "And I don't know much about you either."

"Well, that can be changed, you know?"

His golden eyes stole a glance at her figure, a spark of hope flickering in them. "Will you change it?"

"As long as you let me, I will." She smiled, unaware of the deeper meaning to the prince's ambiguous words. He felt his stomach churn and swirl, not in a sick, nauseating way, but rather a strange and somewhat exciting one.

"Ryoma, we're going to eat lunch soon," his mother said from the kitchen, her voice friendly and motherly as it should be. "Why don't you and your friend stay in the living room or go upstairs to your room?"

"Hai," he replied attentively and led the brunette to his room.

Amazed yet again, Mikan stared observantly at Ryoma's room. "I thought that all boys' rooms are supposed to be, you know, messy and all gross." Her eyes scanned the room again. His room had the basics: a drawer, a computer, an extra long twin-sized bed and the like. His room wasn't opulent with tennis posters or tennis balls or tennis rackets or tennis books or anything that was associated with tennis! Not even trophies or certificates; actually, a few hung here and there, but they weren't meant to stand out and impress those who laid eyes on them.

Hopping to one of his drawers, she carefully looked at the two pictures in silver frames: one was of his family when he was a baby, a daunting frown on his small, round face; the other was a recent picture of him and the entire Seigaku boys tennis team. Of course, he wasn't smiling in that one either and was frowning, seeing that Momoshiro was ruffling his hair and had stolen his white cap—again. She played with his little knick-knacks that were here and there and went about curiously in his spacious room. Finally, when she was done, she had to scan the room again, this time, for Ryoma.

Almost statue-like, the boy stood near his bed, watching Mikan from the corner of his eyes.

She giggled and ran to him, ready to pounce on him, but as fate would have it, Mikan miraculously tripped on an invisible object, falling down and landing in Ryoma's arms. Unfortunately, he couldn't support both her weight and the force that she ran into him and fell onto the bed, somehow ending up towering her small body that had yet to grow. They bounced on his bed upon making impact on it and they found themselves in a position most uncomfortable.

Their faces were only inches apart from each other and they were so close as to feel each other's hot breaths. Ryoma immediately felt his cheeks flush with blood, getting hotter and hotter and he inhaled more and more of her sweet, strawberry scent. She too, felt her heart pound violently against her chest, wanting to burst out at any given moment now; she looked away, thoroughly embarrassed. Both were too embarrassed to even move and get out of the awkward position that they were in.

"Ryoma, time for lunch!" they heard his mother's faint voice through the nerve-racking silence that filled the air.

Finally regaining at least some of his senses, the prince immediately rushed off of the girl and walked towards the door to exit. "Gomen*," he said, his voice low and sincere before he left. _Girls really do smell good . . ._

_

* * *

_

Ever so swiftly did time pass, for the leaves on the trees had turned to orange and red and brown and slowly shriveled from trees, leaving almost all of them completely naked. Only a few more weeks until no leaf would be so much as dangling from a tree branch. During the time that had passed, Sakura Mikan learned to improvise and worked on a daily routine on how to survive her schooldays without being killed by the evil members of the Bishounen Club, or the Bishie Club, if you may. During that time, Mikan had also grown stronger bonds and relationships with both Ryoma and Natsume.

It was November already, seven months since Mikan first arrived at Seishun Gakuen. She had grown to love the school already, especially all her new friends and especially the tennis club. At times she would still think about her former school, Gakuen Alice and wonder how her friends were doing; she wouldn't know since the school forbade the students to receive and send letters from friends of students and only allowed contact with family members. She missed the dorms and her odd group of friends and how she often laughed and tried to make the students get along. She _did _miss Gakuen Alice very much, but she simply loved Seishun Gakuen, and almost nothing could separate her from the place.

And if I dare say it, it was only a few days ago that Sakuno had told Mikan something that caught her by surprise.

"Mikan, I think you're in love with Natsume," Sakuno told her friend without reserve.

Frantically shaking her head, the brunette was in denial at first, so they agreed to do some experiments to see whether Sakuno was right or wrong. _She can't possibly be right. Me, _in love, _with Natsume, of all people? Impossible. I just like his company and the fact that he's my friend, _she thought. She did think this and wanted to believe it, but a part of her just said that she was wrong and really was in love; and obstinate as she was, she found out the truth with proof.

"You'll know you're in love when 1) he's the first person you search for in a crowded room and is possibly the only person you even see in a crowded room, 2) just being with him and seeing him smile makes you happy that you would even go to a place you hate to be with him or doing nothing with him sounds great to you, 3) when he's sad you're sad and feel a heavy feeling in your chest and would do anything to make him smile, 4) you love his scent and find it intoxicating and sweet, 5) your heart beats faster and faster when you're with him, 6) you think about him and wonder whether he thinks about you, too, 7) your heart skips a beat when you hear his voice or hear him say your name or _something_ . . . Oh! There's a lot more I can go and say, but I'm sure that more than one of these apply to you, Mikan-chan. Or do you want me to go down the entire list of how to know you're in love? Because it's a long, _long _list."

Her eyes cast down on the floor, Mikan stayed quiet, because what Sakuno said _was _true. _It's true . . . It's all true; but what if one or two of the things she said applies to two people . . ? Ah, why does Natsume's face keep appearing in my mind? What, does she know that #4 is _so _true because I like to smell his leather jacket? . . . I still need to give it back. _Her brown orbs flickering differently, more calmly now, with a tint of pink on her cheeks, Mikan looked her dear friend in the eye and confessed. "I love Natsume." It felt good to say those three words, as if a long held-in secret was just revealed and she was alleviated of the burden of hiding it. "I love Natsume," she repeated, more certain than the first time she said it.

Sakuno smiled toothily at Mikan. "I wish you luck with him." _And hopefully I get lucky with Ryoma, too._

Overjoyed, the tangerine girl hugged Sakuno tightly. "Thank you, Sakuno-chan. Really, really, thank you."

"Anything for you."

Breaking the hug, Mikan looked at Sakuno in the eye again, this time, a with a teasing expression. "Ne, Sakuno, who do _you _like, hm?"

It was Sakuno's turn to blush, and becoming red as a newly picked tomato, she shook her head frantically as Mikan did when she told her that she was in love with Natsume, unable to utter any words.

"It's alright if you don't want to tell me. I guess I have my own l—lo—" she gulped, "lo—love life to think about." Saying her words of thanks one last time before she left, the brunette also wished her fellow brunette friend the best of luck with whomever she loved.

All the while, Natsume had been resting peacefully somewhere else on campus when the image of Mikan's face arose in his mind. Not paying much attention to it, he instead thought of Ryoma, his rival. His main priority is defeating the other prince of tennis; because his feelings of competitiveness and passion of defeating Ryoma at _something _worthwhile, the teenage male with his lustrous jet black hair and unique eyes that strongly resembled rubies failed to see his own feelings. He failed to see that he too, had fallen for Sakura Mikan's charms, her sweet and warm smiles, and especially her incomparable personality. The prince unknowingly continued to push away his feelings that tried to make themselves known to him because of his great rivalry with Ryoma.

ｘｘｘ

*gomen - sorry

* * *

**Author's Note: First and foremost, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS! I know I wasn't supposed to update. But I just _had _to. I couldn't help it! _ Only a few more chapters until a few special guests appear :D Again, I wanted to make this chapter longer but didn't :P I hope you enjoyed this chapter nonetheless because I kind of liked it, I think o_O Anyway . . .**

**Poll #1 results:**

**Ryoma! : 29 votes: 41%**  
**Natsume! : 38 votes: 54%**  
**Can't decide :/ : 2 votes: 3%  
Neither: 1 vote: 1%**

**Poll #2 results:**

**Ryoma! : 15 votes: 75%**  
**Natsume! : 3 votes: 15%**  
**Shinji! :** **2 votes: 10%**  
**Can't decide (still) :/ : 0 votes: 0%  
Neither: 0 votes: 0%  
Either: 0: 0%**

**Aren't you surprised with poll #2's results? xD Ryoma is leading with three-fourths of the votes! If you haven't voted, I have a 2nd, new poll up. And if you change your mind, I'll have a final and third poll next month. :) VOTE! Just click on my profile and click "Vote Now!" at the top of the page after the poll question :) & you have to be logged in to vote.**

**Review please. Flames are highly accepted. :]**

**Ja,**

**Aimee.**


	11. A Kiss, Finally

ｘ

**Chapter Eleven: A Kiss, Finally**

ｘ

It was Monday afternoon once again, and in front of Seishun Gakuen's gates stood two teenagers. Teenagers who were not from Seigaku but from another school: Fudomine High.

"Are you sure about this, Shinji?"

"Ah. Thanks for coming with me, Ann."

"No problem. It don't mind coming here with you; it's been a while since I've watched those people play anyway. I wonder how much they've improved since the last time I saw them . . . Seigaku is interesting. Seigaku is strong . . ."

The two Fudomine students headed to the girls tennis courts in hopes of meeting Mikan, but upon arriving there, not a single soul was to be found.

"No one's here . . ."

Ann felt sorry for the poor guy and patted his back. She knew how much he was looking forward to seeing the girl again, even if he didn't show it. "It's okay, Shinji. It's pretty late so it's only natural for them to have left already. We'll come back next time. Anyway, since we're already here, why don't we go check out how the boys team is doing?"

"Okay," he answered, robot-like.

The girl with shoulder-length hair sighed and walked to the boys tennis courts, her companion silently following her. There, only the regular members were there; the other members had left long ago. All the regulars were training as hard as ever, courtesy of Inui's rigorous new workout, along with his improved version of Aozu.

Shinji surveyed the area, his face expression subtly changing. His blue eyes lit up upon setting his eyes on the petite figure of a certain brunette curled up into a ball, sitting quietly on a bench while hugging her knees tightly against her chest. _She _was here.

Noticing his subtle change, Ann glanced at Shinji briefly and looked at what he was looking at. "Mikan is really cute, ne?"

"Of course she is," he mumbled and walked to the girl while Ann went to watch the practicing regulars closer. "Yo, Sakura Mikan," he said in the most casual way he could manage.

Looking up, she smiled weakly at her blue-haired friend. "Hi. Good afternoon; or good evening, whatever it is now," replied the brunette, trying to sound as cheery as possible. She scooted over to her left so the Fudomine tennis player could sit beside her.

_Strange. Something must have happened. _"You don't look like your usual self today. Are you sick? Did anything happen?" he asked in an attempt to know what brought sadness upon her angelic face.

"Um . . . Shinji-kun have you . . . Have you ever been in love?" Her voice was whisper-like and her cheeks started to glow pink. Thoroughly embarrassed by admitting that she was _in love, _she buried her face in her knees a bit.

"I don't know. But tell me what's bothering you anyway." His usual mumbling ceased for the moment. His main priority was her right now.

"Well . . . I recently found out that I'm in love . . ."

It only took those simple words to make Shinji feel a throbbing, aching feeling in his chest. Though he stayed silent, he motioned for her to continue. He was afraid for once, that his voice would tremble if he spoke. _Ridiculous, _he thought. Shaking his head, he inwardly laughed at himself for allowing himself to be concerned with a _girl _in such a way.

"You can keep secrets, right? What am I saying— of course you can. I found out that . . . That I'm in love . . . With Natsume."

"Natsume?"

She nodded. "Since I found out, I don't know how to act around him! When I try to talk to him, I feel . . . 'sick'. My heart starts to be so loud and fast that I can practically _hear _my own heart beat echo in my ears! I get really self-conscious and I start to think I look like crap compared to him, and . . . And . . . Oh, I don't know what to do. Falling in love is weird, isn't it?"

"Yes it is. Like you've recently found out that you've fallen in love, I've recently had my h—" he stopped himself. _I can't say that. It's GAY. I almost said that I had my heart broken . . . _He tried again, paraphrasing what he was going to say. "Recently, I found out that the girl I like happens to like someone else." Shinji blushed; he blushed even more once he realized that he was actually _blushing, _of all things. Secretly, part of him wished Mikan would understand the meaning behind his words; that she would realize that the girl he liked was her; that she would realize how he felt for her. Instead, he received a tight hug from her, meant for comfort.

Sakura Mikan possessed a pure, kind soul. If only she could, she would gladly give hugs to anyone who needed it. Even though it was a simple action, even she was aware of the mysterious powers of a hug, knowing it would help people feel better or help alleviate a burden they carried in one way or another.

The teenage male with his shoulder-length, blue hair smiled.

"What are you doing?" Echizen Ryoma stood before the two, the other prince of tennis beside him. Though their faces were straight, it was obvious that the two princes were _not _pleased. Their eyes danced of rage, of jealousy.

"Shinji was sad so . . . " Mikan tried to explain; she didn't know why the two were so angry.

Shinji stood up. "Ann just wanted to visit today and I was simply accompanying her."

" 'Simply accompanying her' my ass."

"It's true." He pointed at his schoolmate and Momoshiro, jerking his thumb in their direction. "Your senpai seems pretty satisfied with Ann's presence."

Ryoma grimaced. His anger was slowly building up. _Why was Mikan hugging him? _He was angry, but he was also somewhat hurt; he thought that Mikan's hugs were _special, _but now he thought less of them, seeing as how she was hugging Shinji just a few minutes ago. He _wanted _those hugs to be special; he wanted them to be meant for him _only._

"Anyway, _ouji-sama_*, let's go have a little chat over there." He walked away, not looking back. Knowing Ryoma, he was certain that the prince was going to follow. Looking back back would just be a waste of energy.

They went to a quieter, more private, and more secluded place.

"Your real reason for coming to Seigaku is . . ?"

"Echizen, I think we both know why I'm here. Mikan, of course."

Ryoma gritted his teeth. It wasn't like him to be so affected by something—anything— let alone a _girl_. "Stepping stones should know their place."

"Stepping stone? I think you're mistaken about something, _ouji-sama. _Stepping stone, you say?" Shinji laughed mockingly, thinking it was comical how the so-called prodigy was so inexperienced in love. "Look; you're better than me in tennis, no doubt about that. But no matter how good you might be in tennis, tennis is tennis and love is love—two completely different things. So, no matter how much better you are than me in tennis, you can't say the same for love."

"Shut up!"

"She doesn't belong to you."

"She doesn't belong to you either!"

"I never said she did."

"I never said it either."

"But you act like it. We're _rivals, _Echizen. But I didn't bring you all the way here for that. She already loves someone."

"What?" Ryoma's eyes widened. He calmed down after receiving the shocking news. "You're lying . . ." _Mikan loves someone . . ? Impossible… She's too dense to even know that herself…_

"Believe whatever you want to believe. Ja." Shinji began to walk away and stopped soon after. He looked back at Ryoma, who was standing still, still letting the news sink in. He took pleasure in seeing the arrogant kid in such a state. "Oh, and: you should learn to control yourself. Jealousy is a monster."

* * *

November. Not quite winter yet, but the weather is very chilly and at times is very cold. The trees are wilted, as are the shrubs and small bushes here and there; all flowers are dead and not a single trace of green is to be found anywhere outside—of course, with the exception of the evergreens.

Today, it's definitely cold, but not enough to keep Seigaku's boys tennis team regulars from practicing. If asked if they were cold, their answer would be 'no'; the calories they burned while going through their rigorous practice were enough to keep them warm—hot, even, like their burning passion for tennis.

Beads of sweat rolling down his face, Momoshiro Takeshi fell down onto the ground, exhausted. "No more," he said in between pants, desperately trying to catch his breath. It wasn't that his stamina was poor; his was almost as great as Inui and Kaidoh's stamina. He was just at his limit. Well, almost, anyway.

Remembering something, he sat up immediately, as if gaining a new found energy out of nowhere. "Tezuka-buchou! Can you call everyone here, please? I have a _very important _announcement, and were all pretty tired anyway, so give us some slack, will you?"

The captain, who was Momoshiro's opponent _again_, wiped his own sweat with the towel around his neck and sipped his energy drink. He removed his glasses and wiped them, then turning back to Momo. His face was unreadable, emotionless as it always was that it made the spiky-haired tennis player sigh in defeat. "Alright," the captain finally said, his arms crossed against his chest.

"Yatta*!"

Tezuka exited the tennis court and went to call the others, leaving the second year high school student with a huge grin. Obviously, he was planning something; and usually, those plans meant no good for Echizen Ryoma. Once the captain with hair like copper returned, the rest of the regulars were with him. "Momoshiro has an important announcement. Everyone listen up!"

"Hai!" The team aligned into a straight line, watching Momo pace back and forth. "So … Do you guys minds helping out that brat over there with something?" He pointed at Ryoma, who him him back a suspicious look.

"Oi, what exactly are you thinking about? First, you ruined my match with Fuji-senpai, so this better be something worthwhile."

"Don't worry, Echizen. It's something worthwhile. It's something worthwhile, alright . . ." The grin that made Ryoma so suspicious about him appeared again. "And this is to benefit you, brat. So be thankful and quit whining." He turned to the other regulars and asked again: "Do you guys mind helping out Ryoma with something?"

Kikumaru Eiji was the first to answer. "I don't mind! I want to help Ochibi. It sounds fun."

Inui Sadaharu stared point blank at the younger prince of tennis. "Echizen? Need help? That's a first. I'm in."

"Me, too. I would love to be of any help," was the vice-captain's reply. "And me," Kawamura Takeshi added quietly.

"Fshuu . . . I guess I'm in," Viper chuckled, his lips curling into a sly smile as he eyed Ryoma, who was clueless about what his senpai was planning.

Fuji Shuusuke's blue eyes were on both the prince and Momoshiro. "I'm always willing to help Ryoma," was his ambiguous reply. Although, one could never imagine what Fuji had in mind. He was the _seemingly _innocent but not-so-innocent one.

Hyuuga Natsume merely shrugged his shoulders and the captain nodded his head as a sign that he thought the same as the others, ushering Momo to continue.

"Great," he said, his grin widening. "Echizen, remember how I told you that I was going to help you with . . . you-know-who?"

In response, the dark green-haired prince narrowed his eyes at his senpai, threatening and deadly. "You wouldn't."

"Oh, but I _would_. And I am."

"Don't you dare."

Ignoring his kouhai's threats, Momoshiro cleared his throat and spoke in a loud voice: "Everybody, listen up! Echizen needs help with a girl!" **(A/N: Can you guess who said what in the following phrases? ;) If you guess all of them right, then I might just tell you something nice; only one guess per person.)**

"Ehh? A girl?"

"Echizen . . . likes someone? That's surprising."

"Is it Coach Ryuzaki's granddaughter? Or perhaps it's the girl who came by to watch us practice the other day, when Shinji and Ann were also here?"

"Bingo."

"This is bull," Ryoma spat out and turned to leave. His secret had been revealed. And he trusted his senpai, his confidante, to keep it a secret. He adjusted his white cap to hide his face; his face was flushed red.

"Oi, wait." Momo took hold of him before he could get any further, his strength greater than the still-growing prince.

"Senpai, let go."

"Look, Echizen; I said I'd help you so calm the heck down and listen."

"You told my secret…"

"So, what? You can trust them all. Don't tell me that you don't trust your fellow regulars after all we've been through all these years."

Ryoma inhaled to calm himself down a bit.

"Besides, this is all part of _the plan_."

The two walked back in front of the curious others. That is, all except one, who already knew . . .

_Echizen actually likes someone . . . I still find it surprising, _Tezuka thought, a bit disappointed but also somewhat relieved. Disappointed, because he expected a lot from Ryoma, the one he chose to be Seigaku's pillar of support. Relieved because he thought that Ryoma was too absorbed in tennis to take interest in anything else that it was beginning to become unhealthy.

"So, our goal today is to help Ryoma get closer to Sakura Mikan! If it all ends well, then one of them might even confess," Momo teased, raising both his brows a few times.

The other prince, who said nothing but listened carefully, wore his mask of emotionlessness; but behind that mask, he was very displeased. He did not like this at all. As the spiky-haired senpai who was probably the closest one to Ryoma went on and talked about his plan, Natsume tried to think of ways to get himself excluded from the senpai's plan to help Ryoma with Mikan. Several ideas came to mind, but none of them were good enough: his teammates would wonder why he wouldn't help Ryoma—Ryoma who he was close to, his fellow tennis prodigy and fellow prince—and one way or another, he would arise suspicion from the other regulars—worse is that they might actually conclude that he liked Mikan. Of course, it wasn't true. Though it would be bothersome. _Who would like an idiot like her? . . . Ryoma would, for one . . ._

"Even though it's Saturday today, I'm positive that the girls tennis team was also going to practice today, even for a little while. . . Alright then! Ryoma will stay here and wait at the tennis courts while we go look for the girl. Inui-senpai and Viper can look around building Two, though it's not likely for her to be there. The golden pair can check in the cafeteria and the canteen. I'll go check around the girls tennis courts. Tezuka-buchou and Natsume . . . You guys can look wherever, I guess. And whoever finds her, bring her here!"

"I presume that we're supposed to change into our street clothes at least? We can't go walking around in shorts and jerseys in this weather."

"Yeah . . . Everyone go change, then we commence the plan! We meet back up here every fifteen, twenty minutes or so and if Echizen is already with the girl, we just keep trying to push them together," Momo snickered, imagining the look on his kouhai's face. _Punk. He's only a freshman yet this is already happening._

"Yosh! Let's go!"

The tennis players had diverged right after they finished changing their clothes, heading off into different directions. All went to search for Sakura Mikan in the places where they were assigned to do so; only Tezuka and Natsume were still staying put, standing in front of the locker room.

"Buchou, do I have to do this?" Natsume asked, his voice monotonous.

Tezuka looked at Natsume, his arms crossed against his chest. "Yes, you do. We must help our teammates, our comrades. If we build our relationships, then we might also build our cooperation in tennis and it might help in some other ways as well," he answered in the same monotonous voice as Natsume's, except his had more authority and power.

"Okay, okay. I'll go over look somewhere over there, I guess." The teenager with jet black hair said, pointing in some random direction and the captain nodded his consent. He walked away, still not wanting to do this, but his captain had ordered—_recommended_—for him to do so, so it must be beneficial or something, somehow.

It didn't take long for Natsume to spot the wanted girl's brown head. Her back was facing him, so one would think that it was only possible for the girl to be Mikan, but her small bag with red, red cherries confirmed that the girl was indeed Sakura Mikan. She was staring at the great, leaveless sakura trees.

"Oi. What are you doing?"

She turned one hundred and eighty degrees, facing the one who called her with a smile. "Natsume? I guess it isn't that surprising to meet you here on a Saturday. I was just looking at the sakura trees and wondering how beautiful it must look her when it's springtime."

"Hn," he grunted, not really giving the brunette much to converse on.

She sighed and walked to one of the cherry trees, placing one hand on its cold trunk. "Why are you here again?"

Momoshiro's words rang in his head. _To help Ryoma get closer to Mikan . . . _A bitter look crossed his ordinarily stoic face, his blood beginning to boil. He was annoyed, but why? Perhaps because he was given orders by Momo? Or is it something else?

A sudden feeling coming over him, the prince forcefully made the clueless brunette lean against the tree, her innocent, chocolate brown pools getting captured in his red, ruby ones. He lifted her chin, leaned down, nearing his face closer to hers, and closed his eyes, and kissed her. . .

As fate would have it, Tezuka also began his search for the brunette shortly after Natsume left, and now, he saw an utmost shocking sight, as if there weren't enough surprises for the day. He stared at Natsume's familiar figure against the girl who they were searching for, his lips pressed against her own. He only needed to see that particular phenomenon, and almost instantly, he realized that Echizen Ryoma wasn't the only one who was in love with Sakura Mikan: Hyuuga Natsume loved her as well, but might not know it himself . . . There was only one thing he could do to make the fight for her love fair.

The captain shook his head and headed back to the tennis courts. It was almost time for the regulars to meet up again.

"What do you mean you're not permitting the rest of the regulars from help me?" Ryoma asked sharply, trying hard not to raise his voice and trying hard not to show any sign of disrespect to his well-revered captain. He didn't understand why the captain would want to stop right now, when they had just begun.

"Yeah, Tezuka-buchou, please explain," Momo added.

"It's an order. I just found it unsuitable for the team to do this while we were all looking for Sakura Mikan-san."

"Forget it then. Ja." The younger prince kicked the fence open and left, extremely irritated. He was bold and admitted that he actually like a girl to his fellow regulars, and this is what happens. He didn't want to make his day any worse than it already was and headed home.

"You're all dismissed," Tezuka announced. He watched the rest of the tennis regulars exit the court, Natsume leaving last. _Hyuuga. This is the only thing I can do for you; you must learn to realize your own feelings. Echizen is your rival not only in tennis, but also for Sakura Mikan . . ._

All it took was that one kiss. It only took that kiss for Tezuka to realize that not just one but both of the princes of tennis had feelings for Sakura Mikan. It only took that one kiss for Mikan's stomach to immensely fill with fluttering butterflies. It only took that one kiss for her world to turn topsy-turvy. And it only took that one kiss for her to fall harder for Hyuuga Natsume.

ｘｘｘ

*Ouji-sama – prince  
*Yatta – "Alright!"

* * *

**Author's Note: Finally! I'm done with chapter eleven :) It's one of my favorite chapters of the story and it actually makes me go "Kyaa!" a bit. I was supposed to update on Thursday, but I didn't get to because I had our Spring Concert in school. Then I had to go to a party earlier so I couldn't update earlier. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, because I certain enjoyed writing it :) Especially the last sentence ;) It's getting better, no? Excuse my grammatical and/or spelling errors and please let me know about them if you find any. Thank you for all the reviews! And so, the poll results this time is...**

**Poll #1 results:**

**Natsume! : 38 votes: 54%**  
**Ryoma! : 29 votes: 41%**  
**Can't decide :/ : 2 votes: 3%  
Neither: 1 vote: 1%**

**Poll #2 results:**

**Ryoma! : 31 votes: 52%**  
**Natsume! : 23 votes: 38%**  
**Shinji! :** **2 votes: 3%**  
**Can't decide (still) :/ : 2 votes: 3%  
Either: 1 vote: 1%  
Neither: 0 votes: 0%**

**If you haven't voted yet, then go!**

**REMINDER****: Poll results do not affect who Mikan will end up with.**

**Ryoma is in the lead; it's kind of weird since Natsume was leading in the first poll... Anyway:**

**Review please. Flames are highly accepted. :]**

**Ja,**

**Aimee.**

**P.S.: Remind of note above: (A/N: Can you guess who said what in the following phrases? ;) If you guess all of them right, then I might just tell you something nice ;D only one guess per person.)**


	12. Visitors

.

**Chapter Twelve: Visitors**

.

"Oi, oi, have you guys heard?" A male student with sapphire blue eyes and side-swept silver hair entered the classroom casually and looked at each and every one of his classmates in homeroom. "They say that there's this weird girl with cropped hair going around and shooting people." His voice was as usual: uncaring, but the news that he had just shared with everyone else wasn't something that was to be ignored or be concerned about.

The entire class stared at the boy, wide-eyed. "Ehhh?"

"Yeah. No worries though, no one is in critical condition and no one is severely injured."

"Toyama-san, how did you find out?" the blond, bespectacled class president asked.

Toyama Akira shrugged and lazily dragged himself to his seat. Before sitting down though, he looked at the girl sitting beside the class president. "You," he said to her, passionless, "they say that she's looking for you, Sakura."

"What?" the brunette tilted her head to the side, her countenance innocent and clueless. Iinchou looked at Mikan nervously, worried about his friend and not wanting for her to panic. Five seconds passed, but no reaction came from her. She just sat idly; the news had yet to sink into her brain. Finally, after two more seconds, the grave news finally sunk into her head. "What? What did I do? Why is she after me?"

Akira shook his head warily, already knowing what was going to happen next. Sakura Mikan had been transferred to their classroom nearly two weeks ago, and he already knew how predictable she could be at times. The brunette charged at him, ready to bombard him with her questions and her wails.

"Akira-kun! Why me? I haven't done anything bad . . . Honestly!" She tugged onto his pants, kneeling on the floor beside his desk.

"Let go of my pants, baka*. How the hell should I know what she wants from you and why. It's none of my business." He shook his leg, trying to get the annoyingly clingy brunette away from him. "Let go already, you."w

"Mou, help me."

"No."

"Help me!"

"I said no. Now let go, you idiotic girl."

"Mikan-chan, I'll help you," the class president, Tobita Yuu, said quietly, but was unnoticed by Mikan.

The door slammed open revealing a girl with a pretty face, though it was cold and emotionless. Her lovely violet eyes looked around the room slowly as students began to whisper and get away from her.

"That girl . . . She has cropped hair . . . I've never seen her before. I think she's the one Toyama-san was talking about," one student whispered to another.

Another student said in his hushed voice, "It _is _her! Look in her hand, she has a gun!"

Akira smirked and stared at the figure who had just entered the room on her own will. "Speak of the devil."

"Mikan," her feminine voice came.

The brunette slowly turned around, her body shaking with fright. "H-Hai?" The shaking ceased and there wasn't a trace of fear in her body anymore once she saw the person who was looking for her. Instead of fear, she felt joy and immense … love? Yes, love. For the person who had been looking for her_ was _an ice princess, but she was also Mikan's best friend.

"Hotaru!" Mikan's eyes sparkled; she ran to the supposedly dangerous girl and leapt toward her for a hug, only to have a gun pointed at her and shot down. The class began to hyperventilate and panic, though none wanted to make any sudden moves just in case they caught the seemingly heartless girl's attention: they were afraid that even they would get shot. Some were staring at Mikan's laying figure on the floor, too shocked by what happened not to notice that Mikan wasn't even bleeding at all.

"Itai, what version is that Baka Gun now?" The brunette sat up rubbing her forehead.

Most of the students stared at each other, greatly confused about what just happened. _Mikan is . . . alive? _Iinchou, on the other hand, rushed to her side, frantically checking if she really was alright. He wasn't doing it out of responsibility. He wanted to do it. Because he liked Mikan. But she never really would find out, since she's much too dense and Iinchou is much too shy to ever tell her how she feels. It's only a simple crush anyway, and it would wear off sooner or later.

"It's version 2.4," the one called Imai Hotaru answered and lowered her gun.

"Waah! And it used to be version 1.9! It really hurts, you know."

"Of course. It's made especially for idiots like you."

"Mou, you're so mean…" The happy-go-lucky girl sighed. Within the blink of an eye, her mood changed, and she was as bubbly and as gleeful as ever. "Anyway, it's okay because you came to visit me! I missed you, Hotaru!"

"I know. Ruka is here, too."

An attractive teenager with golden hair and blue eyes stepped into view. He waved his hand at Mikan and smiled, also causing most of the girls in the class to fall in love with him right away.

"Ruka-pyon!"

All three friends were happy to be reunited; even though Mikan was the only one who was freely showing her happiness, Hotaru and Ruka were both glad to meet the cheery, energetic brunette as well. Life at Gakuen Alice just wasn't the same without her; it was actually very dull and boring without her most of the time. As for the girls in the class along with some other tens (maybe hundreds) of girls who saw the blond male with Hotaru, they were smitten with the animal lover. Amongst the sea of unspeakable thoughts that went through their minds, one was: _So his name is Ruka . . . _The mere knowledge of his name was already enough to make them think _those _kind of thoughts, if you know what I mean . . .

* * *

Hyuuga Natsume constantly stole glances at the rooftop door. _Where the hell is that girl? She's never been _this _late . . . _Again, he stole a glance at the door, subconsciously hoping that the brunette would pop out and blurt out some random excuse as to why she was late. But she still wasn't there. He scowled. Cruel as he was, the raven-haired prince began thinking of unjust—well, to him they were just—punishments for the girl.

He waited, but the bell rang, and she still didn't come. For the first time, Sakura Mikan didn't show up for their daily lunch meeting. When he left the rooftop, the prince began to have an unsettling feeling about that "_ugly, _dense, idiotic, good-for-nothing girl," as he says.

Where exactly was Mikan during lunch time? In the cafeteria, with Hotaru and Ruka, trying to catch up to what has happened with everyone and sharing this and that, even though she'd already told them countless times in the mail. Unlike most of the teen population, this girl didn't own a computer or a cellular phone.

While she was happily talking to her friends, Sakuno had caught a glimpse of her and tried to call her, but Mikan didn't hear her. It was inevitable, and the shy brunette, who had the opposite personality as Mikan, left once she saw that her friend was already sitting with some friends of hers who she seemed very close to . . .

Like she did most of the time, Ryuzaki Sakuno sat at a secluded lunch table. Some times she would sit with some acquaintances or a few not-so-close friends, but overall, she felt alienated and lonely. _Mikan-chan is always surrounded by people . . . She has a lot of friends . . . I thought we were really close but I guess I'm just not even one her best friends . . . How pathetic am I, really? _She let out an inward laugh, mocking herself, remembering how she even copied Mikan's hair style for God's sake. Quietly, she ate her lunch, though she didn't really have the appetite for it. Seeing Mikan and her friends just made Sakuno more insecure and less self-confident. _I have nearly no one and she has nearly everyone . . ._

_...  
_

As soon as the older, ruby-eyed prince got to his seat for his English class, he stared at the still-missing brunette's desk.

"Natsume . . . Did you hear about the girl who came to school and supposedly shot people?" the younger prince asked in a hushed yet very wary and worried tone. He stared at the enthusiastic girl's desk and continued. "They say that Mikan got shot, too . . ."

It was a brief moment, but it happened: Natsume's eyes had widened in shock. "Impossible…" He clenched his fist and looked out the window. _That idiot couldn't have been shot…_

Of course, only few knew what really happened. But as we all know, rumors spread like wildfire, and the truth gets bent easily.

Fortunately for both princes, they found out the truth within seconds, for the brunette stepped into the classroom with her smile brighter than usual. "Hello, everyone!"

Ryoma stood up immediately. "Mikan."

"Hai?"

"It's nothing . . ." He slumped back onto his chair, relieved that she was alright. He was relieved that she was alright and wanted to hug her; all the same, he was also furious at whoever the hell said that she got shot. If that person was in the same room as the younger prince was, the said person would probably be going through hell right now.

As for the other prince . . .

Natsume walked to Mikan and stood still before her. "Where have you been, idiotic girl." In one swift motion, his hand had a substantial amount of Mikan's brown hair clamped tightly in it. He tugged on her hair, demanding an answer.

"Itai! Natsume-kun no baka!"

"Answer."

"Mou, I was just . . ." Her sentence was never finished; Natsume stopped tugging on her hair and was looking at the doorway, though the many strands of Mikan's hair were still secure in Natsume's hand.

"Ruka?"

"Natsume?"

Finally, the raven-haired prince set the brunette free and went to properly greet his friend. He flashed the blonde visitor one of his rare smiles because it was worth it. "Ruka, it's nice to finally see you again. But what are you doing here?"

"I'm surprised that I even met you here. I just tagged along with Imai here to visit Sakura at her new school."

"Imai?" Natsume's red eyes observed the girl beside Ruka and just noticed. She was pretty, he'll give her that much, but she had the same stoic expression as he did.

Mikan also decided to join in the conversation. "Natsume-kun knows Ruka-pyon? That's great!"

"Shut up, you. I never said you could join this conversation."

"No one bosses that idiot around except for me," Hotaru said, pointing her Baka Gun at Natsume. "I think that you'd listen to me, since you don't look like the stupid type. Am I right?"

"Whatever. Lower the gun already and let's go talk over there."

"Gun?" a student shrieked.

All the other students froze and laid eyes on Hotaru's Baka Gun. "Holy crap! It's her! It's the girl who's been going around shooting people!" As the class started to go into a frenzy, Natsume started to get more and more irritated.

"Shut up!" Instantly, the entire room fell silent. He proceeded to his seat, near Mikan's and Ryoma's, with Hotaru, Ruka, and Mikan behind him.

"Yo," Ryoma greeted nonchalantly. "Echizen Ryoma desu*."

"Nogi Ruka."

"Imai Hotaru. Pleasure."

"So, how exactly do you four know each other?" the prince with messy dark-green hair asked. "Natsume and Mikan didn't know each other when they first met here."

"Natsume and I are childhood friends, and our parents are close friends with each other," Ruka replied. "As for Imai, Sakura, and I, we went to the same school before: Gakuen Alice."

"Is that so … " _I don't like the way he says 'Sakura and I.' _Ryoma tried his best not to make a sour face; jealousy, on the other hand was having a fun time playing with the prince. _What exactly is his relationship with Mikan? I don't like the way he looks at her either…_

"Mikan-chan, how is Seishun Gakuen, anyway?" Hotaru asked, turning her attention on the girl, though her countenance was as usual: straight, unmoving, and beautiful, her eyes were soft and caring.

"Well, it's pretty great! I miss everyone from Gakuen Alice though . . . Sometimes I wish I didn't have to move . . ."

Upon hearing the brunette's last sentence, both princes perked their ears. The same thought ran through their minds: _"Sometimes I wish I didn't have to move . . ." ? What? The idiot. If she never came to Seigaku then we probably never could have met. What an ingrate. _They stayed quiet, but what Mikan said did make them both angry and hurt to some degree; and neither of them would ever admit that they felt that way. Unfortunately for them, Hotaru noticed their subtle change.

_Hmmm, what is this? _She looked at Natsume, then to Ryoma and decided to test something out. "Ne, Mikan-chan, is there an unlucky idiot in this school that you've fallen for?"

Mikan's head snapped up. She laughed nervously and averted her gaze from her four friends that were seated near her. "What are you talking about? How is that possible? I don't like anyone," she lied. Her usually fair cheeks had turned pink; they turned red when she caught a glimpse of Natsume's face. That was all it took for Hotaru to know. Since Hotaru was a genius and Mikan's best friend, it was obvious that Mikan liked—or possibly even _loved_—Natsume. She also found out that Ryoma liked Mikan based on his reaction, and that Natsume _might _like the cheery idiot as well, though it was difficult for Hotaru to tell.

Ruka, who was Natsume's best friend, was certain that Natsume liked Mikan. It was surprising to him, but he knew it was true.

The two princes, however, wanted to know who Mikan liked. She never was a good liar, and almost anyone could tell when she was lying.

To break the awkward situation they were in, Natsume decided to throw another one of his insults at the brunette. "Hmmm. Even if you did turn out to like someone, I bet that person wouldn't like you back. Idiot. If he _did _like you back, then he's probably stupid like you."

"Natsume! That was mean. You're the idiot here," Mikan half-yelled back at him. She pouted and fought back the tears that were threatening to spill because what Natsume said had a great effect on her. Because he was the one she liked; and for him to say such a thing hurt her. She could only be hopeful that what he said was only another one of his nasty jokes.

Finally, Narumi strolled into class and they dropped the discussion.

* * *

"Natsume, what time are you going to be in school tomorrow?"

"Eight."

"Oh. Well, can you come meet me in front of the school tomorrow at seven? My flight isn't until nine but need to tell you something before I leave, okay?"

"You're leaving already, Ruka?"

"Yeah. So can you come tomorrow?"

"Ah. But can't you just tell me what you need to tell me now? I don't see the difference."

"Oh, look at the time. I have to go. Ja!" And with that, Ruka ran off. He headed towards the hotel he was staying at, hoping that his best friend would listen to what he has to say tomorrow. But knowing Natsume, he was probably going to be hard-headed and stubborn again. _I guess I'll see what happens tomorrow, when I finally say what I have to say . . ._

_...  
_

*baka - idiot  
*"Echizen Ryoma desu" – "I'm Echizen Ryoma"

* * *

**Author's Note: Ah, it took me a while to update. I apologize. It's summer and I'm getting very lazy . . . But I also happen to be busy lately; I went up to Burlington, VT for college orientation, I have regents and finals and all that other crap. Anyway, I also didn't feel like writing this chapter because I found it boring . . . The next will make up for it, but CH 15 will definitely be best; I think I might even make CH 15 into CH 14 instead, because I can't wait to write it (^-^). I hope this chapter satisfied you guys nonetheless. Don't forget to pester me to update! I also made an AMV about this story (but not the exact same storyline, just somewhat) and it's on Youtube. :) Link is on my profile, if you wanna watch.**

**To all those who I sent message because of guessing who said what in the previous chapter, remind me!**

**Ja, **

**Aimee**

**Poll #2 results:**

**Ryoma! : 36 votes: 48%**  
**Natsume! : 34 votes: 45%**  
**Shinji! :** **2 votes: 3%**  
**Can't decide (still) :/ : 2 votes: 3%  
Either: 1 vote: 1%  
Neither: 0 votes: 0%**

**If you haven't voted yet, then go vote already!**


	13. Trip

**Author's Note: There are a few things you need to know about Japan and its school system and I also need to do some minor revisions in this story. In Japan, the school year starts in April & students graduate in March. There are three years for middle school; 7th (12/13 year olds) to 9th grade (14/15 year olds). High school also has three years, 10th grade (15/16) to 12th grade (17/18). Both Seishun Gakuen and Gakuen Alice are in Tokyo, but in this fic, let's just pretend that GA is somewhere else in Japan.**

**.  
**

**Chapter Thirteen: Trip**

**.  
**

A pair of red eyes like blood stared out the window. He met his best friend at the school gates earlier that morning, as asked of him.

_Impossible, _he told himself for the seventh time that day, remembering Ruka's words and what happened earlier.

...

_"Natsume, do you happen to like anyone, by chance?"_

_Natsume gave the blond a strange look, the answer "no" immediately coming to mind as soon as Ruka had finished his question. "No," he answered aloud. "Why do you ask?"_

_A sigh emerged from the blond's lips. "So you haven't noticed?"_

_"Noticed what?"_

_"You're _**in love**_, Natsume. How could you not know?"_

_"In love?" the prince guffawed. "Don't be stupid, Ruka. How could I be in love, and with who would I even be in love with? And even if I _was _in love, I would know it, of all people. I'm a genius."_

_"That's what I have to ask you: how could you not know? I'm telling you, Natsume, you're in love! It's so obvious to me; I've been your best friend since before we were even born! I would notice whether you would be in love or not. Can't you see? You in love with Sa-"_

_"I'm telling you, Ruka, I'm not in love. Stop being stubborn."_

'Stop being stubborn'? Stop being stubborn my ass . . . You're the one who's being stubborn here! _"Look, you're in love with Sakura!"_

_"Sakura? Mikan?" Natsume blinked once and stared steadily at his friend, trying to suppress his growing laughter. "Are you okay, Ruka? Saying I'm in love is one thing, but with that idiot? Are you feeling okay?" _Me? In love with the idiot? I don't think so. Never.

_The idea of himself being in love with the accident-prone brunette who seemed to always be smiling was preposterous. He couldn't manage to picture himself being in love with the girl. In fact, he couldn't picture himself with _any _girl at the moment. To him, they were annoying creatures who were often stupid, ugly, or both stupid and ugly. Who could blame him? More than ninety percent of the girls that he's surrounded by are fan girls who drool with their mouths hanging wide open._

_Ruka breathed out heavily, then replied to his best friend. "I'm fine. Look, I have to go get ready to leave. Think about what I said, okay? I'll see you again soon. Ja, Natsume. Take care."_

_"Ja. Take care . . ."_

_...  
_

"...ga," the teacher's voice was but a faint muffled sound to Natsume's ears. "Hyuuga!" the teacher repeated, louder this time, finally catching the prince's attention.

"Hai."

_This kid thinks he can just not pay attention in my class? _As we all know, most teachers like to humiliate their students in circumstances such as these. Thus, instead of just yelling at Natsume, the teacher merely smirked. "Why don't you go answer that question on the board?" _Heh. There's no way he could get that question right. I haven't even taught it yet. Stupid, arrogant brat._

"Hai, hai." Natsume stood up and walked to the whiteboard, not the least bit nervous. Stationary in front of the board, he looked at the question for a couple of seconds then grabbed the marker and started writing on the board.

_He'll never get it right, _the teacher thought, watching Natsume from the back of the classroom, confident that the prince wouldn't answer the algebraic problem correctly.

Squeaking noises could be heard from the marker writing on the whiteboard. Finishing his answer with a couple more strokes of the black ink from the marker, the raven-haired student put the cap back on the marker and coolly walked back to his seat, hands tucked in his pockets.

Snickering, the bearded teacher looked at his answer. "This…"

"Is there something wrong, Sensei?"

Reluctant, the teacher muttered, "No." _Damn kid . . . When did he learn such advanced mathematics? This way of problem solving isn't taught until late next year . . . _

Instead of Natsume being taught a lesson, the mathematics educator learned something instead: Hyuuga Natsume wasn't your average teenager. He was much, much more and wasn't someone to mess with.

Elsewhere in the building, later that day . . .

Another soaking wet tissue was thrown at Sakura Mikan. The ones who were throwing wet tissues at her giggled and had spiteful smiles on their faces as they drenched more pieces of tissues in the running faucet water.

"Stop it! What the hell did I do?" Mikan yelled at the three girls; two were juniors and one was a freshman. "I didn't even do anything wrong!"

"Didn't do anything wrong? Bullshit," one of the second years spat out. She wasn't particularly beautiful, but she wasn't ugly either. Her hair was cropped and of the color orange, pointing at several angles using gel. As for the other junior, that was a different story. The second junior, known as Ikeda Kana, _was _pretty and has layered dark red, strawberry hair and golden eyes.

"What is wrong with you? You keep throwing yourself at all the guys, especially Natsume-sama and Ryoma-sama, you slut."

"It's true, Kana-sempai! One afternoon, I saw her flocking around the tennis regulars when they were practicing," the freshman butt in.

The one called Kana flinched in ripe jealousy. "You don't own them. Stop hogging them."

_What? Hogging the tennis regulars? I don't… _Even though she was already being harassed by the trio, she still tried to be polite to her senpais and to maintain her kind and optimistic attitude. "Look, I think you're being mistaken—"

"Stay away from them, bitch. We're going easy on you today, but we won't be so nice next time." Kana tossed one last soaked tissue at the brunette before walking out of the bathroom with her two followers. "Really, who does she think she is?" was the last thing Mikan said as the girls' voices grew fainter as they got further away from the bathroom with the door finally closing completely.

"What did I do to deserve this? I don't get it," Mikan asked herself, fighting back tears and forcing a smile. "I try my best to be as nice as possible yet . . ." A tear rolled down her cheek. _It's almost as if I'm still at home, with Okaa-san . . . Not the old Okaa-san that I knew, but that woman in my house who looks and sounds like Okaa-san but has a completely different personality . . . My real Okaa-san loves me . . . Right?_

* * *

The months passed by fast; November, December, January, and February. These four months were packed with occasions, but weren't really out of the ordinary.

November: Natsume's birthday, which Mikan had no clue about since she had just transferred to Seigaku a few months ago.

December: Christmas Day, as well as Ryoma's birthday on the day before. Again, the cheery brunette was unaware of her friend's birthday. At her house, Christmas wasn't exactly fun, happy, or warm, especially with her mother . . .

January: more birthdays, for both Mikan and Sakuno. For New Year's, all four of them visited the temple together; although, I can't entirely say that Natsume wasn't forced to come . . .

February: month of the infamous Valentine's Day. This month, Sakura Mikan was had a crisis. Why? Because of none other than _Valentine's Day. _As every girl out there, she wanted to make her present special for the one she liked. In the end she ended up giving chocolates to all her friends. The other brunette gave chocolate to one person, the one and only guy she liked: Echizen Ryoma. But as he has been doing every year, he rejected all the chocolates that girls gave him. That is, with one exception . . .

At present, it is the second week of March and both the boys and girls tennis teams are on a trip together. Birds are slowly returning with their jovial chirps early in the morning and it is starting to be green all around again. Spring is coming. Spring means warmer weather. Warmer weather means that tennis players will be able to play tennis again, and the Kantou Tournament Finals will commence soon. This year, the Kantou finals will be against Hyotei Gakuen, when the new school year starts in early April.

It was supposed to be a trip for tennis practice for Seigaku tennis players only, but . . .

"Onii-san! Let's play against each other," Fuji Yuuta said, his voice loud and clear with a burning passion as soon as everyone was inside the building that they were staying in. Atobe Keigo, rich as he was, lent the building to them without hesitation. There were enough rooms for everyone, and the needed tennis courts were also inside the building.

**(A/N: Fuji Yuuta will be called Yuuta and Fuji Shuusuke will be called Fuji, occasionally Shuusuke. Yuuta might be called Fuji a few times though.)**

The elder Fuji child smiled innocently at his younger brother. "Mikan-chan! My brother said he wants to play tennis with you!" he yelled.

Yuuta blushed; he had become one of Mikan's admirers as well when Seigaku had their matches with St. Rudolph. He looked away, giving Fuji a chance to sneak away while Mikan walked to the younger Fuji child. "Hai?" She smiled at him sweetly.

The male brunette ran his hand on top of his crew cut hair, attempting to look Mikan in the eye. Instead, he ended up blushing even more and looking away once more.

"I get to sleep with Mikan-chan!" Tachibana Ann announced, Shinji and Kamio on either side of her. These three Fudomine students decided to tag along as well, hoping to help the Seigaku players and to improve their own skills as well. Her announcement turned a few heads in her direction, envious stares from a particular few. Guys, namely.

Sakuno's dark brown eyes were also watching Mikan and Ann not so far away, a sad expression in them once again. _Of course, everyone wants to be with Mikan-chan . . . Who wouldn't? I mean, she's cute, sweet, nice, cheerful . . . And I thought I was going to have some time to spend with her again, since I thought we were close friends . . ._ She bit her bottom lip, her self-esteem beginning to lower yet again. Feeling a light tug on her arm, she looked sideways, greeted by a smile.

"Ann-neechan, I want to sleep with Sakuno-chan too. Is that okay?"

"Of course! . . . We can drag Shinji along with us, too," she teased, raising her eyebrows at Shinji.

"What are you talking about?" he sputtered, a light blush starting to appear on his cheeks as the two princes snapped their heads up. The same thought ran through their minds: _No way in hell._

"I was just kidding." Ann chuckled then stuck her tongue out. "Don't get all worked up now."

"I wasn't getting worked up," the blue-haired Fudomine student muttered. "Ah, whatever . . . I'm rooming with Kamio."

"I'm staying with Akutsu-sempai!" Dan called out next.

The spiky-, gray-haired Akutsu Jin stared down at his kouhai, his bronze eyes intimidating as it always has. "No."

"Yuuta and I are staying in the same room, right?" Fuji said, appearing out of nowhere, also earning a solid "No" from his younger brother.

"Hm . . ." Inui Sadaharu finished jotting down a few notes in his notebook and shut it closed. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and looked around the room for potential roommates. A sly smile formed on his lips as he walked toward one of the Seigaku regulars. "Tezuka-buchou, w—"

Before he could finish his sentence, the Seigaku captain answered a solid, straightforward "No," and went off to his room. His own room that he didn't have to share with anyone. _Privacy. Space. I'm going to need it . . . _

_.  
_

"Nezumi-buchou, why did all these people come when I thought this trip was supposed to be practice for the Seigaku boys and girls tennis teams?" one of the Seigaku regulars of the girls tennis team asked, a confused look on her face.

"I don't know, Yumiko. It's best to just do our work if we plan on winning our Kantou finals."

.

"Ryoma," Natsume called out to his fellow prince.

"Ah," the younger prince replied, watching everyone else who was left bicker and argue with each other.

"Do you want to-"

"Ryoma! Let's room together!" Momoshiro shouted and dragged the FILA-capped teenager away before Natsume could finish what he was saying.

"Hm~ I guess that you're rooming with us then," St. Rudolph's Mizuki stated, dragging Natsume along with Yuuta, giving him no choice but to come with them.

Fuji frowned, watching his younger brother being dragged away. "Taka-san, do you mind sharing a room with me?"

"I guess it's fine. Let's go."

Inui, who still didn't have a roommate and didn't want to stay alone in a room appeared behind Kaidoh and tapped his back, startling him. "So . . . I guess it's you and me then, Kaidoh."

"H-Hai, sempai," the snake-like Seigaku player answered unwillingly. _In a room with sempai . . . I don't want to . . . _A frown appeared on his lips. Random ideas of Inui experimenting with him while he was sleeping came to his head. His eyebrow twitched and his frown grew. _I really, REALLY don't want to . . . I know! _"Arai-senpai. Come. Stay with us," he said, leaving no room for Arai to say "no."

"Can I come?" Horio asked, his eyes full of hope.

"No. Freshmen stay with freshmen."

...

"Sakuno-chan, do you know when we're supposed to go down for dinner?"

Sitting up from her bed, the girl thought about what the boys and girls tennis captains said earlier on the bus. "I think we're not going to have dinner until seven. They said that practice doesn't start until tomorrow."

"Oh? So are you two girls good at tennis?" Ann asked, curious. "I play tennis but I'm not anywhere as good as my brother."

"I guess I'm okay at tennis, maybe a little good, too," Sakuno answered, not wanting to brag. She tried to be modest, but secretly, a part of her thought she was actually quite good for having played tennis for a few years now.

"I just started playing tennis five months ago, so I'm not that good," said the other high school freshman answered after her friend.

"Is that so . . ."

...

"Momo-senpai, I think Natsume wanted to share a room with me," Ryoma told the spiky-haired second year.

Momoshiro jerked his hand up and down in a passive motion. "He won't mind. You guys stick together too much anyway." He flopped himself onto his bed, making himself comfortable. "So, how are things with Mikan-chan?"

"Fine, I guess…"

"I heard she gave you chocolates for Valentine's Day," Ryoma's senpai teased.

"Ah . . . I got her something for White Day," the dark green-haired prince admitted. His cheeks became warm, and though he was already aware that he was blushing, he was still amazed at how just thinking about Mikan made him blush and have that weird feeling in his stomach at times, too.

"Oh, yeah! White Day is tomorrow, right?"

Ryoma nodded.

"I don't really know what girls like, so I got her a bear…"

Momo snickered and went to his kouhai, ruffling his hair for the umpteenth time since they've met each other. "You punk. Of course she'll like it."

...

"Why do I have to be stuck with you two? We don't even go to the same school," Natsume grunted, sitting against the wall on his bed.

"Mizuki-san, was it really alright to bring Hyuuga-san here?" Yuuta asked, a bit guilty.

"Don't worry about him. He's always grumpy," Mizuki replied, ignoring Natsume's hostility toward them. "Anyway, you like that girl, right? Sakura?"

The only Seigaku student in the room perked his ears up and listened attentively. _Mikan, huh. That idiot again._ He was beginning to feel a bit irritated, angry, even, although he wasn't particularly sure why. _Damn. Why is everyone saying Mikan, Mikan, Mikan? If not Mikan, then her last name! Sakura, Sakura, Sakura. What the hell; I guess everyone is talking about the idiot so much that it's just plain annoying and enough to probably even make me mad . . ._

"Mizuki-san, not so loud. Hyuuga-san is right there," the brunette muttered, embarrassed. _He goes to the same school as Mikan-chan! What if he tells her that I like her? That would be really awkward . . ._

"Ah, whatever. All I have to say is that she's pretty cute. You have good taste."

_Good taste, my ass. That idiot? Cute? That's bull._

_...  
_

"You know, with my two years experience in tennis, _I _should get the best bed in this room . . . "

"Horio-kun, shut up."

* * *

**Author's Note: It's been a while since I updated, ne? Ahh, summer . . . As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter :D I've been tempted to write some stories focusing on Yuka and her love interests, except she's just a teenager. I also really want to write something MikanxYouichi . . . **Hyournihime**'s Writing Challenge to me _might _be MikanxYouichi ;D Kyaaa! But I'm lazy . . . I wanna write my RyomaxMikan moments already! It's so frustrating . . . But I have to follow the plot that I already wrote out, so, sorry . . . && If you'd like me to update faster, pester me. Seriously. I'm lazy XD**

**To **GhUrLpLeAsE**: Yuuta is there, as promised :) Although, I don't think he'll be much of a love interest . . . Gomen TT_TT I tried . . .**

**Review please. :)**

**Ja, **

**Aimee**

**Poll #2 results:**

**Ryoma! : 42 votes: 48%**  
**Natsume! : 39 votes: 45%**  
**Can't decide (still) :/ : 3 votes: 3%  
Shinji! :** **2 votes: 2%**  
**Either: 1 vote: 1%  
Neither: 0 votes: 0%**

**If you haven't voted yet, then go vote already!**

**P.S. Should I make a new poll? If yes, about what?**

**&& Mi-chan is awesome XD**


	14. Presents, Hellos, and Goodbyes

**Author's Note: If I wrote any wrong information about Japan's school system, please correct me. Thank you.**

**.  
**

**Chapter Fourteen: Presents, Hellos, and Good-byes**

**.  
**

_One, two, three, four... _Echizen Ryoma counted silently as he bent down and stretched his hands down to his toes. _One, two three, four... _He repeated the exercise several more times as a warm up for their practice matches.

"Ohayo, minna-san*." In her usual pink jump suit and her long brown hair tied up in a ponytail, Ryuzaki Sumire was aging as time passed by, but her brown eyes were still the same, joyous and twinkling with life. "I see that you all are getting ready for the practice matches, eh? Well, training will be very harsh tomorrow and we will focus on improving on your weaknesses more."

"Sensei, there are a couple of students from other high schools who wish to join our practice. Is it alright?"

"Of course, Tezuka. Now, matches will begin. First: Tezuka and Fuji, Court A. Next: Kawamura and Momoshiro, Court B. Next: Echizen and Inui, Court C. Next..."

"Ryuzaki-sensei, I don't want to play against Inui-senpai. I don't like his tennis."

"Ah. Kouzo*, have a match with me." Akutsu stood tall, a fiery look on his face. It had been a while since he had played against Ryoma and wondered how the growing brat was doing. His sole purpose for coming along to the trip was to play against Ryoma and no one else.

"Fine, fine," the female coach sighed. "Inui and Ibu Shinji in Court D."

"Demo . . . I wanted to have a match against Echizen too," Shinji muttered, frowning.

"Listen, who's trip is this?" Ryuzaki Sumire asked.

"Seigaku's."

"And who is the coach of these idiots?"

"You."

"Do you want me to inform your captain how picky you're being when we let you come along on _our _trip for practice?"

"No, sensei."

"Then hurry up to Court D!"

"Hai!" Without another complaint, Shinji went to Court D as he was told.

...

On the opposite side of the stunningly enormous and spacious room was the girls tennis team. Things were done differently for them; their captain was also their coach, but everyone was fine with that. They all did their exercises together and were currently waiting for further orders from their captain, Nezumi Junko. She was well-respected and loved by the entire team, though she could be really harsh at times.

"Everyone form a line. You'll each draw a piece of paper from this box," said the captain. She held out a small brown box that had a ragged, imperfect, circular hole on top.

"Now, has everyone gotten a piece of paper?"

"Hai," the girls answered in chorus.

"Okay. Open it. You'll be having a match against whoever has the same number as you."

"Ehhh?"

"But we all have different skill levels! What if a person who just started tennis has the same number as one of the regulars?" one of the girls asked, getting into a bit of a panic.

"It's fine. You have to play against people who have different skill levels and who have different styles, not just the same people over and over again. Otherwise, you won't improve much. Best of luck to all of us. Oh, and: don't underestimate anyone, especially if you're a regular. Now . . . who am I up against? I have number 12. . ."

Among the sea of feminine faces, two brunettes stuck together, as they have for quite a while already.

"Sakuno-chan, what number did you get? I got number 3."

"I got number 17. I wonder who I'm going to have to play against…" Like many of the others who found their partners, a frown formed on Sakuno's lips. She started to fidget with her fingers, nervous. "What if I got paired with someone who's much better than me?"

Lack of confidence. One of the problems the said teenager needs to work on.

"You'll be fine! I know you will. You're an excellent player," Mikan encouraged, raising her friend's self-esteem and confidence, as always. Her smile calmed people. It was warm, bright, and sweet. It wasn't fake like every other girls' smiles.

A girl with bright pink hair approached the two brunettes, holding her own piece of paper in her petite hands. "Excuse me, but do either of you have number 17?"

"Ah! Shika-senpai, I have 17."

"Then I guess you're my partner," the second year replied with a smile.

"Hai! Let's have a good match. Bye Mikan-chan! See you later!"

Waving, her fellow freshman continued to smile. "Good luck!" _I guess I better go find my partner, too. _

The auburn haired girl asked the remaining people who haven't found their opponents yet if they had the same number as her, pumped up and ready to play tennis. Finally, she found her partner. Satou Yumiko, a regular, a junior.

...

"Tezuka, you could have been a little gentler, you know?" Fuji dusted his pants and walked to the net to shake his captain's hand for a good game. "You just had to end the match quickly," he sighed.

"Fuji, you improved."

"Really? Should I take that as a compliment? That's another rare thing about you; giving compliments," the tensai* teased, smiling ever-so-innocently.

Tezuka brought his head forward a bit, whispering in Fuji's ear. "That was good for someone who wasn't even trying to play against me seriously."

The teenage brunette's blue eyes met Tezuka's. "Nothing gets past you, eh?"

...

"That was an unfair match," Shinji mumble to himself, displeased with his loss. "No wonder Echizen didn't want to have his as his opponent; his tennis _is _annoying…"

Wiping his forehead with the white towel draped around his neck, Inui smiled at Shinji in a somewhat creepy way. The light reflecting off of his glasses didn't help either, making the bespectacled senior seem like he was up to no good."Good match, Ibu-san. I collected some good data."

"Hai…" _He also seems really creepy… I feel bad for whoever he's rooming with…_

_...  
_

"Kouzo, you better not let anyone beat you since I lost to you," the tall, daunting Yamabuki tennis player ordered. He was defeated by the young prince once again.

"Hai, hai," Ryoma responded, walking out of the court. _It's not like I plan to lose to anyone any time soon anyway. _

"Arrogant brat."

Ryoma smirked at Akutsu's comment. He put away his tennis racket and left. _I wonder how Mikan-chan is doing…_

_...  
_

Sakuno panted, running towards the incoming tennis ball, her loose tresses brushing against her skin with every active motion that she made. Sweat trickling down her face, she continued to play tennis as hard as she could, determined to give a good fight.

"Game, Ichijo Shika. 5-4!" the umpire announced.

_She only needs one more game to win! This is hard, but I won't give up yet. _"Senpai, you're really good at tennis!"

The pink-haired girl smiled. "Thank you. You're pretty good yourself, Ryuzaki-chan. Let's continue, shall we?"

...

"Game and set, Sakura Mikan! 7-5!"

Mikan held onto her racket tightly and blinked. "Wait— what..?" _Did the umpire just say..?_

"Mikan-chan, you won," Satou Yumiko gave her kouhai a pat on the back, though she was quite surprised to have lost to a freshman, someone who just started playing tennis about five months ago. But she wasn't a sore loser; she accepted her defeat.

"I… won?"

"Yes, Mikan-chan, you won."

The brunette waved her hands in front of herself frantically, denying her victory. "It was a fluke, Yumiko-senpai! I couldn't have possibly won," Mikan said, flustered. She couldn't believe that she had just defeated a regular either.

Yumiko smiled. "It wasn't a fluke. Congratulations; you must have practiced hard, ne?"

"H-Hai…"

"A win is a win. Good job," her senpai said once again and exited the court.

The girls team's captain waited for her fellow regular to come out. "I watched part of your match. I told you not to underestimate others."

"Yeah, but I didn't underestimate Mikan; I was just observing how far she's gotten with tennis. She's good… But she still has a lot to work on."

"I guess she is good… I see her practice a lot. Sometimes she's with one of the princes, Echizen Ryoma. Maybe he helps her sometimes…"

"Yeah, maybe. But you have to admit, she has talent."

"Yes, she does . . ."

Mikan exited the court as well, glugging down cold water from her water bottle.

"Hm . . . You won against a regular?"

The brunette took another sip and put the bottle of water down. "Yeah. I'm surprised that I even managed to do it! Can you believe I won?"

"I wonder how a klutz like you could have possibly beaten a regular. From Seigaku, one of the best schools for tennis in Japan…"

"Ryoma! Mou, you meanie."

The prince chuckled. He looked at Mikan's chocolate brown eyes with his golden ones, turning serious. "Look, Mikan…"

"Hai?" He had her full attention.

"Can you meet me outside tonight, half an hour after dinner?" Ryoma shifted his eyes to the floor, feeling his cheeks become a little hot. "I have something to give you…" His voice was low; he didn't want anyone to hear what he was saying.

"Okay, if you want me to. After all, you're my coach! Kind of…"

"Good." He faced her again, his blush gone. "I guess that's a reason for you to have won against that regular."

"Yup, I learned from the best."

"I know. I'll see you later. Ja."

"See you later," she smiled.

...

Sakuno had also just finished her match; and though it was a loss, she was proud. She was on her way to the court Mikan was using but stopped in her tracks once she heard that Mikan won against her opponent, a regular.

_Mikan beat Yumiko-senpai . . ? But . . . How? _Unconsciously, Sakuno clenched her fist tightly and gritted her teeth. Envy manifested itself in her, along with the jealousy that was had already been there for some time. She kept asking herself "Why?"; her brown eyes were steady on Mikan, seeing Ryoma just leave the court that Mikan was in. _Why does Mikan have to win? Why? I started playing tennis way before her . . . Why does she catch Ryoma's attention more than I do . . ? Why? Why does she have to be better than me?_

She could feel hot tears ready to come pouring out and ran out of the room. It was almost time for lunch anyway, and everyone was just going to rest so it wouldn't be noticeable if she was gone . . .

Practice matches ended with the usual: a happy Mikan, a proud Ryoma, a jealous Sakuno, and a surprised Natsume, who had watched part of Mikan's match.

* * *

At dinner, Mikan asked practically everyone if they knew where Sakuno was since she hasn't seen her since the practice tennis matches, but the last time that someone had seen her was when they had the practice matches as well.

Being the good Samaritan and friend that she was, the girl decided to look for her fellow brunette and close friend, but she couldn't find Sakuno anywhere. Not in their room, not in the cafeteria of the building, not in the bathrooms, not in the lounge room—nowhere. She was worried but decided to leave it alone for a while; because Sakuno's grandmother, also known as Ryuzaki-sensei, said so.

At last, it was time for her to meet her savior/coach/classmate/good friend, Echizen Ryoma. Right after dinner, Mikan stayed in her room for a while after changing before going to meet Ryoma.

Wearing a different pair of slippers, she stepped outside and breathed in the fresh air, which smelled like pine trees. "Ah; it smells really great out here," she commented. Looking left and right, the person she was supposed to meet wasn't anywhere in sight. She sighed, wondering why Ryoma asked her to come outside to tell her something. _Why couldn't he just tell me inside? What's the difference? I mean, it's the same thing. . . I think._

A hand reached out from behind and pulled her back, covering her mouth to suppress her screams.

_What. . ? _The brunette started to flail around to break free and escape. She opened her mouth to bite her assaulter's hand . . .

"Oi, oi, calm down," a male's voice whispered.

_That voice . . ._ She felt the slightly calloused hand get removed from her mouth. "Ryoma . . ?"

"It's me. Idiot."

"Ryoma no baka! You scared me!"

"Shh! I'm sorry, alright?"

"Okay . . . You didn't have to scare me like that!" Mikan scolded, remembering the time she was almost raped. Her heart beat started to increase a little at the memory. "So… Why did you ask me to come out here? Wouldn't it have been the same if we met inside?"

"It's not the same." The prince turned around, facing his back to her.

A guilty expression took over her countenance. _Did I say something wrong..? _"Anyway . . . I'm here, so what did you want, coach?"

"Why are you wearing your pajamas?" he chuckled, taking a swift glance at her attire and completely changing the subject.

"Mou! Leave me alone. I'm going to sleep soon anyway, so it should be fine."

"Okay, okay."

The male teenager inhaled and turned around. "Here." He held out a shiny, silver gift bag, trying to prevent their eyes from meeting.

"What is it?"

He moved the bag closer to her, still holding it. "Take it." _Damn. You don't know how hard it is for me to do this…_

She held out her petite hands and took the bag; though it was light, for Ryoma, it felt like he had just gotten rid of something that weighed a thousand pounds. A sigh of relief came from the prince.

"Kawaii!" Mikan squealed and hugged the white bear that was in the bag tightly. "Arigatou, Ryoma!" She leapt forward and hugged the tennis prodigy, causing him to blush madly. _She smells like strawberries…_

She let go, and he avoided eye contact once more. "But why are you giving me a present?"

"Baka. It's White Day today," he said before disappearing into the building.

_Oh yeah… Today is March 14th… _Slowly opening the silver bag, Mikan took a peek at the bear and giggled. She went back inside and headed to her room. When she finally got there, another surprise was waiting for her.

A small box with a piece of paper on it was sitting in front of her door. On the paper was written, "Mikan."

_Another present? _She picked up the box and entered her room, placing the two gifts on her bed. Inside the small box was chocolates, from Belgium. _Imported chocolates? Must have been expensive, _she thought. _I wonder who left them there… _A hopeful thought came to mind. Maybe those chocolates were from the one she liked. A gift, in return for the chocolates she had made for him, Natsume.

The lock on the door made a short _click _sound, the knob turned, and the door opened, revealing Tachibana Ann. "Oh~ I see someone has some presents on White Day." She walked to Mikan's bed and sat herself down. "So, who are they from?"

"Well, I just found this box outside of the room with my name written on it; as for the teddy bear, Ryoma gave it to me," Mikan replied with a smile that reached from ear to ear. "Isn't it cute, Ann-neechan?"

_Ryoma? That cold prince gave Mikan a present? If he gave Mikan a present on White Day, then that means that he accepted Mikan's chocolates on Valentine's Day… He's known to reject all the girls who try to give him presents, not just on Valentine's… _"Ryoma really gave you that present?"

The other girl nodded in response.

_So that means that Ryoma likes Mikan-chan… _"Demo…" Ann's forehead creased with worry and confusion. _Doesn't Sakuno-chan like Ryoma? Mikan-chan seems clueless about it… If Sakuno found out, who knows what would happen to their friendship… _"Mikan-chan," Ann said.

"Hai?"

"Don't tell anyone who gave you that present, okay? Keep it a secret." The older brunette winked at the younger one and put her index finger to her mouth, an action that said to keep things _hush-hush._

"Okay… But why?" Mikan tilted her head to the side, innocent as ever and still as clueless.

"Eto… Where did Ryoma give you that present?"

"Outside."

"Alone?"

"Yep."

"Then, don't you think he did that for a reason? For secrecy, maybe?"

"Oh. I guess you're right. I was wondering about that," Mikan admitted, embarrassed of her slow-witted nature. "I'm really, really slow most of the time, so I don't get things that fast. I'm such an air head," she sighed.

Ann chuckled. "You're not dumb. You're just adorable. By the way, did you get any more presents?"

"No, just these two."

"Is that so…" _Shinji, that idiot! He had a present for Mikan for White Day, too. I guess he's too scared… Idiot. Idiot. Idiot._

_...  
_

"Oi, Hyuuga, where were you?" Mizuki eyed the prince suspiciously.

Yuuta smiled at Natsume and gave him an apologetic look. He turned to his schoolmate. "Mizuki-san, you shouldn't bother Hyuuga-san. It's not like it's our business anyway."

Natsume looked at Fuji Shusuuke's younger brother briefly and continued on to his bed, ignoring Mizuki altogether.

Irritated, Mizuki pressed on. "Where's that box that you were carrying when you left? What did you do with it, hm?"

Natsume turned to Mizuki, his crimson eyes mysterious and dangerous. "Why don't you listen to Fuji over there. It's none of your damn business."

* * *

Time flew ever so fast. The school year ended and started again in April. Cherry trees were almost at full bloom, when they looked the most beautiful. The seniors graduated; Tezuka Kinimitsu, Inui Sadahara, Kawamura Takashi, and Fuji Shuusuke all graduated and started college. But although they graduated, the Seigaku boys tennis team still had their match against Hyotei and had won.

Now juniors, second year high school, Hyuuga Natsume, Echizen Ryoma, Sakura Mikan, and Ryuzaki Sakuno ended up having homeroom together, meaning they were going to be together for the entire school year. Incidentally, their homeroom teacher for that year was none other than…

Narumi entered classroom 2-B, wearing an outfit that artists, painters, would usually use, including a beret. "Ohayo, minna-san. I bring good news. Since our own tennis team had won the Kantou Tournament, we're having our annual ball earlier than usual this year! This year's ball will be . . . A masquerade ball."

...

*Minna-san- everyone  
*kouzo - brat  
*tensai - genius

* * *

**Author's Note: Yep, a new school year in Seishun Gakuen. I liked writing this chapter to some extent… I can't wait for the next two! XD I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. :) I'm kind of sad to have made all the senior graduate already… Especially Tezuka and Fuji… *sigh* I wonder if I should make Horio a regular… Lol! Oh, and please don't assume that Mikan will end up with Natsume/Ryoma because only me and one other person know what will happen... This story still has a long way to go before it's done. ;)**

**Review please. :)**

**Ja, **

**Aimee**

**Poll #2 results are now closed and you can view the results on my profile. I'm going to make Poll #3 after posting the next chapter or the chapter after that ;) I think a lot of you will change your votes by then… **


	15. Jerks

**Author's Note: Get ready for some drama . . . Hehehe . . .**

**.  
**

**Chapter Fifteen: Jerks.**

**.  
**

It was a perfectly warm and humid afternoon, almost sundown, a regular day for springtime. The skies were of the color gray and rain was pouring down.

"I can't believe Narumi-sensei is actually showing up for homeroom now. He even comes to help with the annual ball every now and then," Mikan said aloud, to no one in particular. She giggled of excitement and sighed shortly afterward. "Too bad Ryoma couldn't walk home with me…" She frowned and stopped walking, taking a look at the clouds above.

Her hold on her orange umbrella tightened and her mood suddenly turned dull. _I guess the weather's spoiling my mood, _she sighed again. She continued walking home, walking around puddles that she would usually jump into for fun.

Orange was her favorite color, the color of many of her belongings, including her umbrella. People would usually buy dull colors, like black or gray, for their umbrellas, but she was different. It wasn't exactly pricey and it was pretty old, but she loved her umbrella. She cherished it because it had sentimental value to her: she bought it with Yuka when she was younger, when her mother used to be kind and loving…

"Orange is my favorite color," she had said when they first bought it, wearing a very pleased smile, "and when it rains, my umbrella will keep me from getting down. I really like orange, the color _and_ the fruit." She had said that many years ago, but today, her umbrella failed to keep her from feeling down. Not even thoughts about the upcoming masquerade ball could. It was strange; even she didn't understand why she was feeling so down. The rain alone couldn't keep her from being her enthusiastic, hyper self. This was a rare case.

Maybe it was because she was feeling lonely… Or perhaps it was because of the memory of her mother, with the rain's dreariness contributing to the empty feeling she had…

Mikan unlatched the lock on the gate that led to her house and closed her umbrella once in the small shade. She rummaged through her bag for her house keys. After fishing it out, she unlocked the door and opened it, light from the hallway inside touching her as soon as she entered.

_Light? _Her eyes immediately searched for a pair of something that would tell her important news. She felt her heart beat increase upon seeing the pair of shoes that were on the floor. _She's home._

Panic. She hoped for the best, but hoping just wasn't good enough.

"Mikan, is that you?" The girl could hear her mother's footsteps on the stairs rapidly approaching her, heavy and daunting.

"H-Hai. Okaa-san, you're home rather early…"

"And you're home rather late." There she was, arms folded across her chest and her eyebrows slanting down, obviously cross. She walked closer and closer toward her daughter, her steps sounding loud on the wooden floor. "Where the hell were you? It's late for you to come home! You shameful child! What have you been doing out at this time?"

"I was just helping out with—" Her throat became dry, making words that should be so easy to say difficult. She felt her hands begin to tremble: of both fear and agony. More so because of agony rather than fear, for she wanted to tell her mother to stop getting drunk all the time and stressing herself out and to be how she used to be…

The small amount of bravery she had disappeared when her mother replied, her words lashing at her daughter.

"I don't want to hear it! Get out of my house, you heinous child!"

"Demo, okaa-san—"

"I said get out of my house!"

"I didn't even do anything wrong!" Tears started to flow out of her brown eyes, falling down her cheeks. _Why are you always like this? _

Though Mikan's tears were filled with her emotions and untold feelings, they didn't make Yuka feel a single shred of pity and guilt. "I. Said. _Get. The. Fuck. Out. Of. My. House._" Yuka grabbed her daughter's arm and opened the door wide open, pushing her out in the rain. "Don't come back until you fix that rotten behavior of yours." She looked at the crying girl being barraged with cold, heavy raindrops. An aggressive, menacing look filled her eyes; for a split second, they flickered with sorrow, and she slammed the door.

The mother inhaled deeply and returned upstairs, to her room.

She walked to the small table beside her bed and took the wine glass on it, swishing the liquor inside it around after talking a drink from it. She walked to the window, covered by thick curtains, and looked outside, only to see her daughter still sitting in the rain, crying. Though the raindrops had already mixed with the young girl's tears, the painful expression on her face and her body gestures told the world that she was, indeed, crying.

Immediately, the brunette concealed herself behind the curtain. She walked around the room, unable to even walk straightly.

The sound of shattering glass resonated in the room as Yuka slid down against the wall of her bedroom.

All but the _pitter-patter_ of the raindrops was silent.

And in the midst of that silence, sobbing was heard. That sobbing turned to cries: from an alcoholic mother who despised herself. Yuka banged her head against the wall, then digging her fingers into her hair and crying harder.

_Mikan . . . I'm sorry . . . Please, stay away from me . . ._

* * *

_Good thing the rain became a bit less violent than earlier._

A boy of sixteen walked at a moderate pace, only a couple more steps away from his home. His eyes were set on the ground, trying to focus on walking while his thoughts wandered elsewhere.

_I guess I won't be playing against Oyaji today… Why t— _His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a girl's sobs.

He raised his head and saw his unexpected guest. "Mikan?"

Sitting in the rain, the girl drenched in rain-water looked up, unable to make out the image of the person standing before her because of her tears. The sound of his voice was familiar to her, the one that she had been waiting to hear while waiting silently, freezing.

"Ryoma . . ."

She attempted to clear the tears in her eyes, but they just wouldn't stop flowing.

"What are you doing here?" He held his umbrella over her instead of himself, worry evident in every fiber of his youthful face.

"Ryoma," she said again, tears mixing with the raindrops falling on her face once again. She tried to speak, but it was no use. Instead, she threw herself at him and hugged him tightly, knocking his umbrella onto the stone pavement and crying on his chest.

Ryoma put his arms around her, letting the rain pour mercilessly on both of them.

"Come," said the boy, his voice gentle and caring, "let's go inside before either of us catch a fever."

Mikan said nothing, letting Ryoma slowly guide her inside.

"Just wait for a few minutes, okay?" He looked at the girl he was said to be in love with, the sight of her being so lifeless unbearable. "Oyaji*! Get me a towel!"

"Get it yourself!"

"I need a towel!" the teenager growled, growing impatient.

"Here's your towel, prince," Nanjiroh threw the cloth to his son, ready to complain and do his usual routine of pestering him. Except he didn't. He became dumbfounded that Ryoma had said "thank you" politely to him, even though he intentionally threw the towel at his _adorable _son.

What surprised the tennis samurai even more was how Ryoma's usually arrogant and stoic face had worry and love written all over it. "Mikan-chan? What are you doing here?" He shook his head upon seeing that both—as he says—_kids _were dripping wet. "Never mind. I'll go get another towel."

_What _am _I doing here?_ Mikan bit her lip. _I shouldn't bother Ryoma and his family… I _can't.

She stared at the person who was desperately trying to dry her and keep her warm. She could still feel the goose bumps on her skin from the cold rainwater. "Ryoma..." _You're too kind…_

"What is it?"

"I— I should get going now," she managed to say and smile weakly. She was hesitant. She knew she didn't want to go. But she had to. It was rude to just barge in his house like that and intrude…

"Where are you going?"

"Oh, you know… Well, I'll see you tomorrow at school! Bye!" She sounded happy, enthusiastic as she always was. But she wasn't.

Her back faced the prince, preventing him from seeing her face. Any moment now, she would end up crying again.

"Where do you think you're going?" He held tightly onto her wrist, disabling her from going any further from him; she didn't resist one bit. "You came here for a reason, right?"

The brunette nodded.

"What is it?"

"Because... You're the one I know I can turn to..."

When she said that, he didn't think he could control himself. The way she said it, the expression in her eyes bursting with emotion. It was almost as if he _needed _to embrace her, to keep her safe in his arms.

—He almost did.

"Here's the other towel," said Nanjiroh. "What happened?"

"Stuff happened." Ryoma scowled. He had to stop himself from glaring at his own father for coming back at such a bad time. "Can Mikan stay over?"

"Eh?"

"Thanks." He tugged on his classmate's wrist and brought her to his room before his dad could say anything else.

In the safety of his room, he threw her the new towel along with some of his clothes. "It's alright if you sleep over, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Good. Get dressed then. You can't stay in those wet clothes."

"Demo…"

"I'll go change in the bathroom, so don't worry. I'll be back soon, okay?" He half-smiled at his crush then proceeded to the door. On his way out, he did something he considered bold: he pecked Mikan's forehead.

Ryoma lightly pounded his forehead with his fist, regretting what he just did. _I'm such an idiot!_

He leaned against the bathroom door and buried this reddened face in his hands. _It's impossible for me not to be blushing right now…_

For once, the poor guy was afraid to even look at himself in the mirror: afraid to see how he looked while blushing.

"What the hell happened to me?" He pounded his forehead again. "I know: it's that curse. Or gift. Whatever _it_ is. That thing called '_love._' "

...

Dinnertime was quiet and peaceful.

It was rather tense for some reason. Maybe because Nanjiroh wasn't acting silly and obnoxious. Maybe because Ryoma was saying less than usual. Or maybe because a girl – a cute one – was sleeping over. In Ryoma's room.

…Or it could have been because the food wasn't exactly all that great.

"You can sleep on my bed. I'm sleeping on the floor, so if you need anything, I'm right here."

"Ah! No, it's okay. I'll sleep on the floor," Mikan tried to reason, uncomfortable with the idea of kicking out her friend out of his own bed.

"You're a guest, so you sleep on the bed. That's final."

"Okay…"

"Good. Do my clothes fit you?"

"They're kind of big, but I can manage. Thanks."

"You know, you didn't tell me yet."

"Tell you what?"

" 'You're the one I know I can turn to,' " he repeated Mikan's words.

"I don't really want to talk about it…" _I hate it how you can say that with such a straight, stoic face. I really had a hard time saying that, too, and I meant it... You insensitive jerk…_

"Then why did you come here?"

She frowned and looked away. "Please, don't..."

His head hung low, keeping silent. He wanted to know, but he didn't want to make her feel any worse than she was already feeling.

"Ryoma," said the girl, making him look back at her. He couldn't ignore her. She brought her own head up and looked her friend in the eye. "Please."

He didn't answer. Instead, he just lay down on his makeshift bed on the floor, his eyes closed and his hands behind his head. To him, it just wasn't fair. He wondered why this girl, among all others, made him feel different.

He wondered why he couldn't treat her like he did with others girls, as he initially did when they first met. The face she makes that makes him unable to say "no" to her. Girls were really unfair.

While his thoughts wandered around, Mikan watched him for a little while longer then turned off the lights and got into bed herself.

"You know," Ryoma finally said, "there's no school tomorrow. It's a Saturday."

"Okay..?"

"Earlier, you said '...see you at school tomorrow.' "

"Oh... Sorry." Mikan mentally slapped herself, embarrassed. She heard a shifting sound from where Ryoma was and turned to her side to face him. In the dark, they could only make out faint features of each other.

"You're an idiot, you know?"

"Yeah, I know. And you're a jerk."

"Really?" Sarcasm. He was used to being called 'arrogant' and 'brat,' but 'jerk'? this was a first. "Would a jerk let you sleep over his own house and let you use his clothes and feed you and try to comfort you?"

"No," was her immediate answer, a smile in her voice.

"Then who's the jerk here? Not even saying thank you."

The brunette giggled and smiled at him even though she knew he probably couldn't see her smile in the dark. "Thank you— for everything."

"Night."

"Good night."

.

"Ryoma?"

"Mm."

"Can I ... um ... Can I lie down next to you for a while? Just a little while. Please," she asked, half-reluctant to do so.

His response was an automatic "no," but she had already gotten out of the bed and was lying beside him.

"Oi, oi, what do you think you're doing?" he scolded in a hushed voice. He felt his face grow hot, her body being so close to him. Alone.

"Mou, come on. We're friends anyway, right?"

_Friends_. Rightttt.

"Fine. Just for a few minutes."

"Thank you," she whispered back.

Within those few minutes that he allowed her to lie down next to him, she had fallen asleep.

"Oi. Mikan." He nudged her and received an unintelligible mumble. The prince sighed. For a few more minutes, he stared at her sleeping face, trying to enjoy the moment while he could.

It was strange how just staring at her face made him happy, in the least.

She didn't have the face of a goddess, but her face was just pleasant to look at.

Another sigh emerged from his mouth as he sat up and look one last look at her before going to his own bed.

I'm _the jerk? You're the one who keeps making me hopeful that something could happen between us but are so clueless about how I feel. Idiot._

He threw himself onto the bed, trying to ignore the annoying feeling in his gut that told him to give up on Mikan because she probably saw nothing more of him than a brother, and if she didn't she probably wouldn't even know it.

But what is even worse than Mikan not knowing how Ryoma felt and unknowingly leading him on is not knowing that she was in love with him, too.

One can only be so naïve . . .

_

* * *

_

"Did I fall asleep here?"

Mikan sat up lazily, rubbing her eyes slowly. "Ryoma?" Her head turned left and right, her eyes searching the room for him.

His bed was made and she found him nowhere in the room. _I guess he already got up…_

She hurried downstairs after folding the makeshift bed she used and after washing up. "Ryoma?"

"Hello dear," someone said. It was a woman's voice, very feminine and gentle. From the kitchen, Ryoma's mother came into the living room, smiling at a just-awoken Mikan.

"Good morning," Mikan smiled back.

"Good morning? It's three in the afternoon, Mikan-chan."

"Wait— what? THREE?" Her widened eyes blinked twice. "I slept that long?"

"I guess you were pretty tired."

"Where's Ryoma?"

"Playing tennis with his father. Don't worry about that boy. I have food here for you. It's a little cold, so I'll go heat it up for you." Rinko disappeared into the kitchen.

"Ah, no, it's okay." Mikan waved her hands frantically, following the woman into the kitchen.

"But you're a guest. And you can call me Rinko-san instead, okay? Now, sit down, sit down."

"Okay."

Rinko handed her guest her food and a pair of chopsticks and sat across from her.

"Itadaikimasu."

"Mikan-chan, come over any time you like, okay? Ryoma seems very happy when you're here. He also doesn't invite much people over, so I worry about him."

Mikan nodded, her mouth filled with food. She finished soon enough, praising Ryoma's mom and thanking her for the delicious food.

Still in pajamas, she headed outside. "Ryoma-kun!" She waved, smiling.

"You're finally awake."

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Mikan pouted, giving Ryoma an urge to squeeze her.

He shrugged and sat down on the wooden floor. "You're still in your pajamas."

"I am?" She sat next to him, looking as clueless and as dense as ever.

"Yes, you are."

"Oh."

"And your hair is in disarray."

"It is?"

"Yes, it is. Oh, forget it. You girls are so weird. I thought girls are supposed to look all 'nice' before they show themselves to anyone, but you just proved me wrong."

"I did?"

"Yes, you did."

"Oh."

"Can you say anything other than two-worded sentences?"

"Yes."

"Idiot."

"Ryoma! You're so mean..."

The prince shook his head and sighed. "You owe me," he said, completely changing the topic.

"I do? For what?"

"Remember, _that_ night . . .*****"

"Oh . . ." She didn't want to remember that night. If she could, she would have erased the memory completely, but she remembered the good things that happened because of it. "Oh! Of course, anything for my savior." Her reply was enthusiastic, grateful. She would do anything to repay him for saving her when no one else was there. The night when their friendship somehow started.

Ryoma's honey-colored eyes darted around for a while. He took a breath and finally looked at the person he liked or possibly _loved, _face to face. Except, his confidence and courage faded away when he saw her innocent, smiling face. "Forget it." _Dammit. What the hell happened to my so-called arrogance? My pride?_

"Come on, tell me! I'll do anything. I really do owe you. A lot."

His cheeks already with a pink tinge, he breathed in and asked: "Will you go to the masquerade ball with me?"

"Of course! I'd be glad to!"

Ryoma stayed quiet, surprised at Mikan's answer. _Maybe I should tell her now then . . ._

"Ah, but you know, why me? There are so many other great girls who I'm sure would kill to go to the masquerade ball with you. I guess it's because we're great friends, ne?"

His eyes grew dim, disappointed. _Why do you have to be so dense? So innocent . . ? _"Yeah, friends."

"I'm really excited to go! I don't know if I have a dress or anything though . . ."

He stared at her blankly, listening to her go on about being pretty and how to dress and dance and others. At some point, he couldn't even understand what she was saying anymore: he just stared, watching her.

"Listen, Ryoma . . ." Her countenance became serious, very unlike Mikan.

"What is it?" he spat out venomously, unable to control the bitterness in his voice.

Briefly, her brows jumped and her eyes bulged at her friend's hostility. She put aside her question for the moment, more concerned about Ryoma than she was about herself. "Is something bothering you?"

"I'm fine." He looked away, trying his hardest to maintain a cool, stoic voice. "You were saying?"

"I don't know if this is too much to ask, but . . . Can I stay here for a while?"

It was his turn to be surprised again. He looked back at her, not saying a word.

"Um, I know it's a _tiny_ bit overboard, but I'll be good! I promise! I won't bother you with anything! I'll go get my own clothes and stuff so I don't use yours, I'll help clean the house, I'll give you your privacy and sleep on the couch, I'll—"

"I don't mind. I'm sure my parents and my cousin are going to be okay with it. I was just surprised, that's all."

"Really?"

"On one condition."

"Anything!"

"Don't you think I at least deserve to know why you want to stay here? Tell me why. We're _friends_, aren't we?"

Mikan kept silent, her bangs hovering over her eyes, hiding them.

Right now, she didn't utter a word not because of sadness or shame, but because she felt empty. She was tired of it. She was tired of her mother being the way she was. She was tired of having to smile all the time, even when her heart was heavy. She was tired of listening to everyone's problems when there was no one to listen to hers. She was tired of so many things, and she was tired of having to put up with those things _all the time._

Neither said anything. _He _just sat patiently and waited. _She _just sat quietly, still, thinking.

Finally his patience was rewarded.

"It's because of my mother." Mikan's voice was low and emotionless, her eyes were as if all it's energy and happiness was drained out. "She's an alcoholic. Sometimes abusive . . ." she went on, telling him what he wanted to know. It was better to say it now. There was no reason for her not to anyway . . .

* * *

Two weeks had passed since Mikan started staying over at the Echizen household. She had gotten things she was certain to need right after school one day, while her mother was still at work.

There were no notes, no calls, _nothing, _from Yuka.

Mikan thought that she probably didn't care or was alright with her daughter staying away from her. She thought that her mother's life must have been much better without her there; it was just like how she's always wanted . . .

Mikan _wished _her mother still cared about her. She thought it was only wishful thinking, but she didn't know how much Yuka really cared about her.

Only three days were left until the night of the masquerade ball.

It was lunchtime, and although they were already second years, juniors, Mikan still met with Natsume on the rooftop daily.

"Natsume, why do I have to keep coming up here again?" the brunette whined right after setting foot at the place.

"Are you really asking me this, strawberries?" All it took was a few words and one looked from Natsume, threatening and powerful, to make Mikan drop the subject.

It wasn't that she didn't like staying alone with him there every day. In fact, she enjoyed the staying with him for an entire forty minutes every day; who wouldn't enjoy the company of the one they loved? It was just that sometimes she felt like she was neglecting her friends. She wanted to spend some time with them, too.

Returning to the topic regarding the childish brunette's love for the richer, more arrogant prince . . . She was falling more and more in love with him. It was decided: she was going to confess to him on the night of the ball. She could have done it whenever, but she wanted to make the day she first confessed to someone special, so it would be memorable.

"Natsume, how is the bento today?"

"It's like how it always is. Your cooking is horrible, but I'll live."

Mikan puffed her cheeks. "If it's so horrible, then don't eat it!"

"But I don't have a choice."

"Anyway . . . Aren't you excited about the masquerade ball on Friday night?" Mikan's hazel eyes twinkled, her smile wide and bright.

He arched an eyebrow at her strange behavior then continued eating. To Natsume, she always acted rather strangely, but she was acting stranger, creepier than usual. "Not really," he answered, his bored expression supporting his statement. "I don't even think I'll go."

"What?" Her enlarged eyes focused on him.

"I don't think I'm going to the masquerade ball."

"But— but— Whyyyy?" The whining had begun once more. Her plan to make her first confession perfect and memorable would be a failure if the person she was going to confess to wasn't going to be there.

"I don't want to. That's all there is to it."

"But _everyone _is going."

"Everyone but me."

"All the tennis team members will be there, including me, Sakuno, Ryoma . . ."

He gave his full attention to the girl upon hearing the other prince's name. Of course, he didn't make it obvious, since that wasn't something that Natsume would do. "Ryoma's going?"

"Yep."

Natsume smirked, feeling his competitiveness burn fiercely again; even more than the competitiveness between Ryoma and Momoshiro, both hating the mere thought of losing. "I'm going then." _If that kid is going, then I am, too. First, I'll get this girl before he does. Then, I'll be captain next year; it would be problematic if both of us became captain and co-captain of the team . . ._

"Really?" She could barely contain her happiness and excitement. "So . . . Who are you going with?"

"No one. You?"

"Echizen Ryoma."

The infamous smirk that he hadn't worn for so long was playing on his lips again. "Is that so? Good." _That makes everything perfect then . . ._

"Lunchtime is almost over, so you better get to class. We can't be seen going together or people will get suspicious. Remember: don't tell **anyone **that we meet here. Or else."

"Hai, hai. Your welcome for the bento, you jerk."

Before the jet black-haired teen could retort, the girl had already left.

...

Mikan slid the door to her classroom open, humming happily.

"Mikan-chan, I need your help!"

"What do you need, Sakuno-chan?"

"Come." She walked to her desk, Mikan tailing her. "It's about the ball . . ."

"What about it?" Mikan took a seat and inched her seat to Sakuno's, ready to listen.

"Well, you see . . ." Sakuno looked around the room, checking if a certain someone was there. She sighed in relief when _that person_ wasn't anywhere in sight. "Um, it's only a few days away, but I don't have a date yet, but I have someone in mind . . ."

"Go on," Mikan urged.

Sakuno shuffled her feet and looked down at the floor. She started fiddling with her fingers. She was embarrassed to talk about this with her friend. She could feel her cheeks becoming hotter and hotter the more she thought about _that person_. "I don't know what to tell him . . . Um, do _you_ have a date yet?"

_I wouldn't exactly call him a date, but I guess that's the proper term I have to refer to him as . . . _"Yeah, I do," the brunette replied, smiling warmly.

"Really? Who is it?" Sakuno was beginning to lose her nervousness and was beginning to feel more pumped up about the ball. "He must be one lucky guy," she teased.

"Ryoma."

_What..? _Sakuno stared at Mikan in shock, then horror, wishing she didn't hear what she just did. She grabbed her things and headed for the door, eager to leave Classroom 2-B more than anything at the moment. Her friend was puzzled and tried to talk to her, but she ignored her fellow brunette completely.

She reached for the handle to open the door, but someone else from the outside slid it open.

"Ryuuzaki?"

Sakuno recognized that voice. She knew it too well. She looked up, seeing the number one person she didn't want to see. She headed out of the classroom, tears already rolling down her cheeks.

_Why does it have to be _her_?_

_...  
_

*Oyaji - dad_  
_

* * *

*** Refer to Chapter Three**

**Author's Note: This chapter is more than 5,000 words . . . I made it longer to make up for not updating for a while. I had trouble with the scene with Mikan and Yuka the most, so it's not that good . . . I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter . . . I was supposed to write more for this chapter, but I guess you guys have to wait until the next chapter to find out what happens next :P Is there anything in particular that you'd like to see? I know what I definitely want in the next chapter . . . More drama! Whooottt. **

**Review please! I'd greatly appreciate it :)  
**

**Critiques would be even better . . .**

**Flames are also highly accepted :D  
**

**Ja,**

**Aimee**

**P.S. New poll for TTPoT after the next chapter is posted. Let's see how many of you change your minds . . . ;)**


	16. The Truth: It’s Out

.

**Chapter Sixteen: The Truth: It'****s Out**

**.  
**

"Okaa-san*, enough pictures, please!" Ryoma blinked after having another picture of himself taken by his mother.

"But you look so handsome!" She smiled widely and pressed down on the camera button, snapping yet another picture of her son in his formal attire. His hair was combed and styled, though not too neatly since it's not like him at all; he only agreed to have his hair done because he felt obliged to because of his mother.

Rinko walked to her son and hugged him, careful not to mess up his clothes and hair and suddenly just realizing how much faster time seems to pass by. "Before you know it, it'll be your graduation soon, then your college graduation, then you get married and, oh my!" The mother smiled in delight at the thought of having cute grandchildren from her only son.

"Okaa-san, it's just the annual ball. Is Mikan-chan done yet? I'm going to go check up on her." The prince slid out of his mother's arms and went up the stairs to his bedroom.

He knocked on the door, unsure if his date was still changing, though has been an awful long time since she started getting ready in his room. She hasn't gone out since. "Oi, Mikan, are you ready yet?"

"No! Mou, Ryoma, I'm not done yet. A girl needs time to do these things. I need to look pretty tonight."

_Pretty, eh? _It never crossed his mind to think about Mikan in a dress. Just as the idea came up, he tried to imagine the girl in a dress—any dress—and now that he visualized her in such an elegant, feminine state, he began to feel light-headed and mesmerized although he still didn't see the real Mikan in her dress yet. In fact, he hasn't even seen the dress she was going to wear.

"You can go ahead. You know, you're not supposed to see me until we're at the ball. You're supposed to find me while I have my mask on."

"I am?"

"Ryoma! Weren't you listening to Narumi-sensei? He said it so many times while we were helping to prepare for the ball."

"Is that so…" He could care less about what his teacher said, much less about the ball as well. He only cared because of the special person he was going with. Also, recently, he had been torn whether or not to tell Mikan about how he felt and wanted it to be special if he did end up telling her. He felt his face heat up and thought he was nervous for a moment. _What is wrong with me? Lately, I've been blushing much more than usual . . . _Ryoma lifted his face to his door, staring at it as if he could see Mikan. _Why am I affected by you this much, Mikan?_

"Anyway," the brunette's voice came again, from the other side of the door, "you should get going to the school. I'll meet you there! And when you figure out which girl is me you'll be shocked and mesmerized by my beauty," she joked, her giggling heard.

"It looks like I don't have a choice anyway. Hurry up, alright? I'll see you there."

"Wait! Ryoma!"

"What?"

"I'm sure you look great right now. I'll see with my own eyes later, ne? So that it'll be fair for both of us."

Ryoma smiled. "Of course. Later."

Mikan continued to smile while she watched herself in the mirror of Ryoma's room. She hummed while holding the curling iron with one hand, waiting for the last few bunches of strands to be made into ringlets.

"It's done!" she exclaimed, evidently excited about the night. She glaced at the bed where her dress was laid neatly before getting the hairspray and bobby pins for the finishing touches of her hair.

Afterward, she carefully put on the dress that she had gotten from her house a few days ago, along with other things she needed for the ball. It wasn't a fancy ball gown or anything; no, that was much too expensive for her, also considering the fact that she was a minor who didn't work. It was an evening gown, a myrtle green one that complimented her eyes and showed a bit more of her fair skin, especially at the back.

The only jewelry she wore were a simple silver necklace from her mother when she was younger, with a diamond heart as a pendant and two silver bracelets. She wasn't a big fan of make up, so the only make up she wore was a very light pink shade of lipstick topped with cherry-flavored lip gloss. Taking one last look at herself in the mirror, she smiled, picked up her black heels and purse and headed downstairs.

"Ara! Mikan, you look wonderful," Rinko complimented as soon as the girl came downstairs.

"Ah, no," she replied, being modest. "It's just the make-up and the dress and the hair…"

Rinko smiled and gave Mikan a motherly hug, as she did with her son earlier. "No, it's you. You're simply wonderful."

"S-Sou desu ka*…?" Her cheeks glowed pink, feeling extremely flustered from Ryoma's mother's compliment. She bowed to the woman respectfully.

The woman nodded, still smiling. She wiped a tear from her eye. _They're growing up. We're growing old. Before you know it, we'll be dead. _She chuckled. "Anata*," she called and her husband came lazily.

"Hai, hai." He yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Mikan-chan?" He stared at her and glanced at his wife and smiled as well. A paternal feeling came over him, seeing his own son and a potential daughter-in-law looking adorable and grown-up to some degree. "Kawaii, as always," he chuckled.

"Arigatou gozaimasu," Mikan replied in a low voice and bowed to him as well.

"Ja, let's get in the car now so I can drive you to school. You don't want to be late to that masquerade ball, now do you? You seemed so excited about it."

The teenager nodded, her ringlets bouncing around. "Yeah. Thank you so much!" She bowed once again. She turned to Rinko and hugged her and hugged Nanjiroh next, also giving him a peck on the cheek. _He's kind of like the father I never had…

* * *

_"Just call when you want us to pick you guys up, okay?" Nanjiroh patted Mikan's head and smiled. "Have fun!"

"Hai! Thanks again for lending me your cell phone!" She began to walk toward the entrance of the building where the ball was being held. There were two separate entrances: one for the boys and one for the girls so that none of the people of the opposite sex knew who their dates or friends of the opposite sex were. It added to the fun of the masquerade ball.

"Hello, what color mask you you like?" one of the ushers at the girls' entrance asked.

"Black, please. If it had a bit of silver on it, that would be even better!"

"Good choice," the usher replied and handed Mikan her mask. "Have a great night!"

Mikan put on her mask and chuckled. She joined the sea of people in the spacious room. _It looks much better than I thought it would! _Her brown eyes looked all over the place, admiring the decorations and such that she helped arrange. The crystal chandelier hanging above made the whole place look more like a ball, especially that it was night and the chandelier lights were on: it made everything seem so fancy and pleasant to look at. "Now… I wonder where everyone is…" She smiled one of her bright smiles, a very genuine smile from excitement and joy.

A harp began to play, repeating its rhythm twice before the violins and violas played, followed by the rest of the orchestra. People cleared the centermost area of the room and people began to waltz. Other people joined as well, being instructed by their dance partners who knew how to waltz since not everyone in the room actually knew how to waltz.

"What beautiful music," Mikan said aloud, smiling gently. She closed her eyes to enjoy it more. _I've never heard a live orchestra before. I never knew it sounded so . . . amazing . . ._

"Mikan-chan?"

The girl opened her eyes to see who had called her name. It was a blonde boy.

"Who are you?"

"It's me, Tobita Yuu." He put his hand to his mask to remove it but was abruptly stopped.

"Iinchou! You're not supposed to take off your mask yet! Not yet, I think. At least, it would be better that way. What happened to your glasses?"

"I'm not wearing them. I'm wearing contacts today."

"Sorry I didn't recognize you."

"That's the whole point of a masquerade ball, isn't it?" The class president laughed, still amazed at how such a girl can make him laugh. "You're silly."

"I guess I am," she let out a soft laugh. "You know, I like Iinchou better with glasses."

Yuu blushed, staring at the girl he liked bizzarely. "But you can't even tell; I'm still wearing a mask."

"I guess you're right," she admitted, laughing nervously. "I don't know; it's just a feeling. Just ignore me. I usually have no idea what I'm talking about anyway."

"To be honest, I like wearing my glasses more. So I will continue to just wear my glasses. Anyway, do you have a date?"

"Yep. But I can't find him. I'll see him eventually."

"Do you want to get something to eat with me for now?"

"Sure!"

...

"Where is that girl now?" Echizen Ryoma moved from the place he was standing once again, turning every now and then, searching for a special someone. _Brown hair. Brown hair. _His golden eyes moved from head to head, looking specifically for medium length, brown hair. _Found her._

He walked casually toward the brunette whose back faced him, trying not to seem desperate by hurrying to get to talk to her though he really couldn't wait to see her, even though he actually wanted to see her already.

He placed his hand on her bare shoulder, causing her to turn around. "Hey." He smiled, much to the girl's surprise.

"R-Ryoma-kun?"

"Green suits you," he complimented, making her blush.

"Arigatou… You look… very h-h-handsome as well," she said, her voice low. She felt her face get very hot and couldn't look him in the eye. _He actually complimented me…_

"Would you . . . would you like to dance?" He let out a gust of air, nervous and embarrassed for asking a girl to dance.

She looked up, her brown eyes meeting his golden ones. She nodded, unable to make the "yes" on the tip of her tongue come out.

Bravely, he held her hand and helped her to the center of the room. "Let's go." The prince pulled her gently her to the danced area.

"I-I don't know how to waltz," she murmured.

"Then I'll teach you."

"Okay…" The girl looked up at his face, aware that she was blushing like mad at the moment and that she was so happy. _It's like a dream_…

"You put this hand here," he explained while placing her small right hand on his nape while placing his left hand on the small of her back, locking her fingers with his with their free hands. "Just follow my lead, alright?"

"Mm."

He guided her, slowly teaching her how to dance the waltz. Gradually, the embarrassment of both people vanished and they both just continued to dance, enjoying the moment together. It was just pleasant to have each other's presence.

The song ended and the orchestra began to play a different song.

"Would you like to continue to dance?"

She nodded in response, her eyes staring straight into his with so much feelings dancing in them.

"The lighting in here makes your eyes and hair color seem darker than usual."

"Does it?"

"Not that it matters," he added before she would worry that there was something wrong with how she looked, which he would beg to differ.

And they began to dance again.

...

"Mikan-chan, how was the food?"

"It was great! The ball is great! Much better than I expected."

"Yeah, me too." He smiled at her, and she smiled back. "By the way, who is your date?"

"Ryoma. And Iinchou's?"

"I don't have one. You know, you should go look for him now. You shouldn't make him wait for so long."

"You're right! You should go have some fun, too, though. Go dance with someone! Mou, what's the point of coming if you're not going to enjoy yourself?"

"Then… Mikan-chan…" The blonde gulped, faced with what he thought was the most difficult thing in the world because of one probable thing: rejection. "Would you like to dance with me? Before you look for Ryoma."

"Of course! But…I have no idea how to waltz," she laughed nervously.

"I'll teach you," he said, his voice friendly and gentle, as it has been. "But let's wait a little bit longer for the food to digest, okay?"

...

Waltzing around, step after step, the two spoke no words at all and just continued to dance, letting their emotions and feet faithfully guide them. Though, one knew exactly who the other was, and the other was mistaken about the identity of his dance partner.

_When did our bodies get this close? _Sakuno asked herself, feeling her cheeks become hot again, Ryoma's body almost glued to hers.

"I have something important to tell you," said he, feeling his palms begin to sweat and his blood rush to his pale cheeks, making them redder than they've ever been. He began to become overly conscious of himself, also beginning to feel his own pulse in several places.

But, somehow, he brought himself to look her in the eyes and said: "I don't exactly know how or why, but I think… I'm in love with you."

His expression was incomprehensible to the brunette when she looked at his face again. Her brown eyes gazed up at him steadily, her lips parted but no words were said. Instead, she smiled, unbelievably happy. It was as if one of her dreams had escaped from the sanctuary of her own wishes and desires, her secrets, and had become reality.

He drew her closer to him, his hot breath tickling her ear. "Mikan," he whispered.

_Mikan? _It only took that name to make the girl's hopes shatter. That word drained away all her happiness as if it was never there in the first place. That happiness was replaced with pain and sorrow. He pulled their bodies closer, making Sakuno feel worse since she knew it wasn't for her. These feelings that he was showing wasn't for her at all. This dance wasn't meant for her either. _This is all a big mistake…_

The song ended and they pulled apart.

"Why does it have to be her?" she whispered, her eyes filled with tears. She looked at his face one last time and ran away, regretting coming to the ball and wasting all her time. All she wanted to do was be left alone to cry.

How she wished it was all really a dream. But it was all a bitter reality.

...

"Are you ready?" Iinchou asked the girl sitting across from him at the round table.

"Yeah. Let's go."

Just as Ryoma had taught the girl he thought to be Mikan how to waltz, Iinchou did the same, although their explanations and ways of showing how to do it weren't exactly the same, of course.

"Thanks for having this dance with me," Iinchou smiled sincerely and his dance partner, glad to have this chance.

"No, thank _you_ for actually wanting to dance with a klutz like me."

"I actually like a klutz like you," he blurted out accidentally.

"I like you, too!" Mikan smiled widely. She meant what she said, and though he knew she didn't like him the way he wanted, he was still happy to hear her say that.

"I'm glad to hear that then."

Iinchou stopped dancing, hearing the music cease. He turned his head, feeling someone tap his shoulder.

"May I?" the stranger asked monotonously, holding his hand out to Mikan.

"Of course. We just wanted to have one dance for the night," Iinchou answered. "Ja, see you in school, Mikan-chan."

She waved good-bye and turned to the male who had just asked her to dance. The messy raven hair and the crimson eyes were just too familiar to her. "Natsume," she breathed out.

Another song started to play.

"Come. It's a composition of Tchaikovsky."

"Of course you would know."

His eyes darted from her head to her toes, taking in her image. "Hm, you actually look like a female for once."

_This guy… _"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Do you take it as a compliment?"

"No, I take it as an 'I guess for someone like _you_, it could be considered as a compliment.' " The brunette smirked, mimicking her dance partner's usual habit.

Without notice, he twirled her, leaning her down to make her believe she was going to be dropped to the floor only to find herself being held by Natsume's arm.

"You're terrible." Mikan scowled, continuing to follow his lead anyway.

Somehow, he managed to waltz themselves onto the balcony, the glass doors to it already opened. He is, after all, Hyuuga Natsume. Much to Mikan's dismay, he let go and leaned on the railing, looking into the darkness below then up to the sky. He removed his mask and placed it on the side, just because.

The brunette stood beside him and took hers off as well, then looked up at the lit night sky. "There are quite a few stars out tonight, ne?" Receiving no reply from the prince, she continued to talk. "You know, since my previous school was in Tokyo, you couldn't see much stars. I kind of miss the city though… And my friends, too! Anyway…" _Here I go…_

"Can you shut up for once?" He turned his face to her, annoyed at her for talking so much. _Even if she looked like a more mature teenager, she's still the same idiot. She— _He lost his train of thought, the girl's brown eyes looking straight at him seriously, her face not hidden any longer by the black mask she used.

"I have something important to tell you…" She looked away, having second thoughts about what she was about to do. _I can do this. I should…_ She turned back around to face Natsume. "Natsume, I—"

He placed his hand on her cheek, looked at her emotion-filled hazel eyes, and kissed her. This time, it was just an impulse. Perhaps because she looked stunning tonight. Or perhaps it was because of something else, but this time, none of the reasons why he did it had anything to do with Ryoma. This time, it was all about the "stupid, ugly girl."

_No… I have something to tell you… _Mikan tried to pull away to finish what she was saying but Natsume's hold on her was too strong. She knew that he must have felt _something _for her, which made her happy, but she still needed to tell him herself…

"Mikan?"

_That voice. _Instantly detaching himself from the girl, he looked at the silhouette of the person standing by the balcony doors. "Ah, look who it is."

"Natsume…"

"I win," the raven-haired prince smirked, a wave of truimph washed over himself.

" 'I win'..?" Confused, Mikan looked at Ryoma, then at Natsume. _No… _She covered her mouth with her hands, staring at the person she was about to confess to in disbelief. "Is this how it is? So it's just a game to you, huh… You really are the worst," were the last few words from her quivering voice to him that night. _The worst_… She ran away, tears falling profusely.

* * *

*okaa-san - mother  
*"Sou desu ka" - "Is that so?"  
*anata - dear

**Author's Note: I finally updated! Happy New Year, everyone. :) Poll #3 is up now! I wonder if any of you changed your minds on who to vote for ;P Anyway, college has been terrible. I'm still on my winter break, which is a great thing! **GhurlpLease **kind of reminded me to update . . . So I did. This was supposed to be a good chapter but if it isn't, then it's because my writing skills have gotten dull... I need to read and write again... Oh! && I'm also learning Japanese though I don't know that much. Questions, suggestions, etc. PM me. Also, I might move this to the GA x PoT Crossover section so if you get an e-mail that I updated but can't find the story in the GA section, it's probably in the crossover section.  
**

**(Hopefully I stay for a while.)  
**

**As always, please review! **

**Ja,  
**

**Aimee**


	17. Re: Favor

**.**

**Chapter Seventeen: Re: Favor  
**

**.**

"Natsume! What the hell are you talking about?" Enraged, Ryoma charged toward the other prince and grabbed him by his collar. "What did you do to Mikan?" he pushed for an answer, his question mixed with emotions of rage and with something he couldn't quite put his finger on; something that made him feel like something inside him broke and that it hurt. A lot.

"You saw what just happened. The girl's madly in love with me," Natsume replied stoically, amusement and mockery in his voice.

Gritting his teeth and doing something that he rarely ever does, Ryoma lost his cool: he swung at the raven-haired prince with his fist, only to receive a blow to his jaw without even hitting his target. His mask had gotten knocked off and he tumbled a few steps backward.

"Mada mada dane," Natsume said before grabbing this mask and returning inside. For some reason, he got pleasure from punching the younger prince in the face, much more than when he had automatically blurted out "I won" earlier. Truth be told, he didn't exactly feel as great as he thought he would when he supposedly "won" the supposed fight over Mikan. He felt guiltier than anything else when he saw her run away with tear-filled eyes and her honest face that told exactly how she felt, her chocolate brown eyes clearly showing disappointment and something much more than that. The face that he had seen made Natsume have a feeling as if something was tugging his chest, telling him he had just made a big mistake, but he ignored it.

The other prince, disheveled and uncertain of how he should feel at the moment, closed his eyes momentarily to calm down and look at what's of priority at the moment.

The thought of Mikan and Natsume's kiss was burned into his mind, but he managed to ignore the image for the moment. _Mikan! _

Ryoma ran out of the building and fished a cell phone from his pocket, then called his house phone. It rang, but no one answered. "Dammit" he breathed out. He didn't understand the event he just witnessed; he arrived on the balcony with the person he liked locking lips with someone he thought to be a good friend, but soon after, the girl ran away with... tears in her eyes? _I don't understand at all! _

Irritated, among other things, the prince shoved the phone back in his pocket and began to walk home, his pace increasing every now and then. He hoped for a few things at the moment, though he usually believed hoping would do nothing and work had to be done in order to initiate something.

**Hope. **He hoped that what happened was not what he thought it was. He hoped to understand what really happened. He hoped to see Mikan after he got home. But most of all, he hoped that she was alright; the expression she had shown back on the balcony definitely showed that she was deeply hurt. He witnessed her cry because of _someone_, even though she was known for smiling even in the toughest of times.

.

After what seemed like forever, Ryoma finally arrived at his house. His parents' car was parked in the driveway, meaning they were home.

"Oyaji! Open up!" He banged on the tall wooden part of the gates that guarded his house. He rang the buzzer on it several times, impatient.

The wooden door-like gates creaked open, Nanjiroh appearing behind it. "Oh! You're home! Why didn't you call for us to pick you up?"

"I did," he replied, quickly changing the subject. "Is Mikan here?"

"Yep. We picked her up not too long ago."

"Good." Ryoma maneuvered around his father and headed toward the house.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, kiddo," the professional player caught his son's shirt collar, preventing him from going any farther. "Did anything happen? Mikan-chan was smiling as usual but she looked sad, I think. Besides, we weren't expecting either of you to come home for a couple more hours."

"It's nothing," Ryoma answered and entered his home once his father set him free.

"I think the girl's already asleep. She went straight to your room."

The prince stopped in the doorway. "I'm sleeping on the couch then. Oyasumi*."

Nanjiroh shook his head and sighed. "I remember being a teenager. Good luck, you two."

.

In his pajamas from the dryer in the basement, Ryoma flopped onto the couch and pulled his blanket over himself. By then, he had already calmed down, but he wanted to ask questions; he wanted to _know _certain things.

The ball that he went to was ruined by his fellow prince, the one he thought was a decent rival and a good friend; a tennis "prodigy" who he thought understood him. Natsume had his bad habits and his cold demeanor, but Ryoma never thought he was a traitor or a bastard. But now he did.

More importantly, if he felt like crap, then how did Mikan feel? The cheery, happy-go-lucky girl couldn't even fake a smile or that she was alright. By the look of things, she either really, really liked Natsume or was already in love with him. Natsume basically gave her a hard slap to the face when he said "I won"; Mikan was probably shattered, not like a teenage girl would probably feel: teenage girls would usually be rejected politely, not rudely, and definitely not without compassion and thoughts about the feeling of the other party.

It was best to get sleep from the day's tiring turn of events. Tomorrow will still be there, and the prince would see what happens then.

* * *

Ryoma turned to his side and wrinkled his nose. Something didn't smell quite right. He turned back to his other side, getting uncomfortable. _What is that smell? _He sniffed twice, trying to identify the strange scent. _It smells like... _"Something burning?" He sat up, his golden eyes wide open. He jumped off the couch and headed to the kitchen.

"What the—"

A smiling face greeted him. "Ohayo, Ryoma," Mikan chirped, fanning smoke from a pan out the door. "Nanjiroh-san and Rinko-san went out a little while a go to buy a few things so I said I'd be fine with making brunch for you, but..." She looked at the overcooked brown sunny-side-down eggs in the pan she was fanning. "Something went wrong," she laughed nervously.

The prince grinned, the sight of the brunette's usual smiling face a relief. "It's fine. Is there rice?"

Mikan nodded and pointed to the rice cooker; there was still a lot of rice left that Rinko made before she left. "I'll go get it for you with a plate and chopsticks."

"Thanks." He took a seat and rubbed his crusty morning eyes, watching the girl prepare his meal. _I wonder if she's really alright..._

With his food in front of him, Ryoma said his thanks and began eating, a bit famished. Mikan sat across from him, watching him eat silently.

"What?" Ryoma asked when he felt her eyes on him.

The brunette shook her head. "Was the couch uncomfortable? I fell asleep in your room and completely forgot we shared it. I'm _so _sorry!" She bowed. "This is your house and I shouldn't be taking liberties here! Please forgive me." She bowed again, sincerely sorry.

"It's alright," he assured her, continuing to eat his food. "The couch was fine."

The issue about her taking over his room last night was no big deal. What mattered was what happened before that, at the ball. They both knew they had to talk about it soon enough, but for the moment, they chose to avoid the topic.

"Ne, do you wanna go walk around outside today?"

"Fine with me."

"Then, I'll go get ready quick. I can wait for you to shower and wash up after you eat."

"Okay."

With that, the brunette disappeared from the kitchen, easing up the air and letting both people breathe more comfortably.

_Even though I didn't have a chance to tell her last night, maybe today I'll be able to do it..._

.

"So, where do you want to go, Ryoma?"

"Anywhere is fine."

Mikan pursed her lips into a thin line. "Fine."

Ryoma's golden eyes merely stayed on Mikan, his gaze unaverted.

"I want to go to this street food kiosk; I know it's not exactly the healthiest thing in the world, but I like the food there. The vendor there is nice too." The girl raised her chin up and started to lead the way, trying not to stomp per step that she took. There, they ate spicy chicken and beef kabobs and dumplings. Mikan then wandered to another nearby kiosk that sold taiyaki, carp-shaped cake. The one Mikan bought had read bean paste in it, and since Ryoma _insisted _that he didn't want any, Mikan force-fed him, which amused him momentarily. She then dragged him to an ice cream shop and ate some more sweets.

"Oi, don't you think you're eating too much?" Ryoma inquired, his brow raised.

"No," Mikan huffed, "not at all. Besides, you said going _anywhere _is fine, right?" She gained a small feeling of victory, trying to fight the smirk that was forming on her lips.

Ryoma shook his head. "I see. Then I get to pick where we're going next."

"Wait a minute, what did you say before that? Did you just call me fat?" the brunette gasped in horror.

"Maybe..."

"Ryoma!" She pouted, feigning sadness.

"Anyway, you eat kinda slow too; it's already afternoon. Hurry up so we don't get home too late."

After Mikan finished eating, she followed Ryoma to his choice of where to stay.

"Where exactly are we going?" the brunette finally asked after a while of walking, straying farther and farther from buildings and various kinds of stores.

"You'll see."

She sighed, not even bothering to press for an answer, knowing she wouldn't get a word out of Ryoma. It was a quiet walk to wherever they were going, the only thing being said was "Close your eyes, we're almost there," by Ryoma. The brunette did as she was told. Although she quickly felt uncomfortable, she kept her eyes shut, following Ryoma's lead, his hand guiding hers as they went up what felt like a strange path to Mikan.

He let go of her hand.

"You can open your eyes now."

Mikan's eyelids fluttered open, her brown orbs revealed. Her lips curved into a perfect "O," then formed a smile. She walked forward, placing a hand on a cherry blossom tree that had yet to bloom. "A lone cherry blossom on top of this small hill, huh? It's amazing, Ryoma; but it'll probably be very beautiful by the time it blooms. I can already imagine it!" she exclaimed, excited.

Ryoma's golden, feline-like eyes followed Mikan's every movement, his facial muscles relaxing and his eyelids becoming a bit droopier. The prince walked toward the cherry blossom tree and sat on the ground, against the tree's trunk. "Look," he said monotonously, pointing at the view of the sunset.

The girl's reaction was as expected: Mikan squealed in delight upon setting her eyes on the scenery before them. She took a seat next to her fellow teenager and watched it quietly, her smile slowly fading away.

"Mikan," he whispered, loud enough for the brunette to hear.

She turned her full attention to him.

"About last night," he continued. Mikan then frowned, then flashed a sad smile. She had completely forgotten about the sunset and steadily looked at Ryoma, though it was difficult for her to have eye contact with him.

"Sorry about last night," the brunette said lightly while making hand gestures to strengthen her statement. "I'm fine, really." She looked at the dark green-haired teenager and smiled widely, giving even more emphasis that she was alright. He stayed silent, not saying a single word, so she continued to speak. "I'll make up for it," she said, "I'll do something—anything else since I wasn't really a very good date last night. Not to mention I left you." She let out a laugh in an attempt to ease the tension, but it was no use.

The prince remained silent, sitting beside her.

Finally, he parted his lips to speak.

"Mikan," Ryoma said, hesitant, his eyes covered by his bangs, "I'm in love with you." Courageously, he raised his head and faced her, eye-to-eye, ready to make a bold request after his confession. "Will you forget about Natsume, for me?"

...

*Oyasumi - Good night (colloquial form)

* * *

**Author's Note: ****Yatta! I finally updated. It's been half a year! ..please forgive me :'( ... Anyway, this chapter is only about 2,300 words, but this chapter was meant to be short. I hope it didn't disappoint anyone. I am going to sleep now since I have a potential job thing tomorrow, but I wanted to update this story for you guys. I hope you enjoyed it!**

**Review please.**

**Flames and critical criticism is highly accepted.**

**-Aimee :)  
**


End file.
